Deimos's Quest
by Wandergirl108
Summary: Knight Deimos quests to avenge his love Aiedale the Wanderer, to find what went wrong in her journey and how to fix it, with her spirit guiding him through the Fire and the pendant she gave him. What he finds might not bring him all he seeks…or may bring him something far greater. -Important things to keep in mind while reading are posted above the prologue.-
1. Prologue

**THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND WHILE READING THIS FIC (in order of importance):**

 **1) This story happened because, the first time I played Dark Souls, I made my avatar me, and I would never extinguish the Flame even if I talked to Kaathe, but I wanted the Dark Lord trophy. So, I decided to make a second playthrough with an avatar modeled after my beloved, who would never sacrifice himself even if he didn't talk to Kaathe. The idea for this whole story came around when I started up the game, and so I wrote it as I played. Literally, I had my laptop open beside me while I played Dark Souls, writing down everything that happened - this is essentially a written in-character Let's Play. As a result, there are a LOT of deaths, and a lot of struggle, I left nothing out.**  
 **-Parts where the character "lies down and goes to sleep" are the times I saved and quit the game to do other things, and "tripping" is code for "accidentally pressing the wrong button". Occasionally, I use him stopping to "consider something" or "catch his breath" as an excuse for why things happened over time without him doing anything, when the real cause was me typing what just happened while the game was still running. And of course (SPOILER ALERT), the absurdity of the way he finds Kaathe is glossed over but still absurd, I know, but it's just how it actually happened - I was determined to meet the Darkstalker in this playthrough, but it wasn't so easy, so I had to keep milking the excuse for why he didn't go to Frampt with the Lordvessel.**

 **2) This story wasn't originally meant to be shared with fans of Dark Souls - I was going to show it only to the person about whom it was written (if anyone at all), and I don't know if he's ever played Dark Souls. Therefore, descriptions are often used in place of names, and everything is described - a lot of the bulk of this story is describing things in the game with or without naming them. You may get bored; a possibly fun game to play is to see if you know what I'm talking about when you read a description.**

 **3) The thing about "me" being in the fire and guiding him is meant to reflect that I already kind of know where to go in the game and when, and explain the protagonist knowing those things already and going through the game with that knowledge, since I couldn't play for the first time a second time. That particular plot device does, however, take on a much more important role in the story in the end, one hinted at throughout the whole tale.**

 **4) This story was written during a rough time in both our lives, our individual troubles keeping us apart; so, some of this story explores how I think of him, and possibly how I misthink of him, and how he may think/misthink of me (instances of him referring to me as an idiot are not examples of this, that's me being honest) - that is, it somewhat explores our relationship and personalities in the real world. That could be a good thing or a bad thing, but my point is that the main characters are modeled after real people, and that may be something worth keeping in mind one way or another.**  
 **- If there are moments where his thoughts seem oddly and incongruously cold or mean or selfish and also shoehorned-in, that's because they are \- I sometimes went out of my way to try to make him less kind, since selfishness isn't something I comprehend very well, and his outlook on life complements mine by essentially being everything mine is not (this specific thing is discussed at one or two points late in the story). Keep in mind also that I was still the one playing, and doing irreversible evil things wasn't something I was going to do just because I was playing as someone else, so I sometimes felt I had to make up excuses for him doing the same thing I'd do in certain situations.**  
 **-If anyone has been around since I first signed onto this site, you'll know that "Aiedale the Wanderer" is a familiar name - specifically, it's the name of the protagonist of the first fic I ever posted; I kind of flipped when I saw that "wanderer" was an actual Dark Souls class. It's basically my in-game avatar name for any game where I'm not playing as a particular person. As for his name, "Deimos", after which this fic is titled, the real-world person is a young musician, and he gave himself the stage name Deimos after the Martian moon; there's another musician Deimos (or more than one, even) who aren't him, he's only made one EP so far ("Ghosts"), but in an alternate world, it's the best name I could give him, as both that name and mine actually have deep and meaningful backstories. His class, meanwhile - knight - has no significance.**

 **6) When I wrote this, I knew next to nothing about Dark Souls 2, and had only seen the name "Icarus Earth" when browsing the Wiki for information relating to the first game; I know the ending doesn't align with the actual story of Dark Souls 2, but it's the ending I wrote.**

 **Lastly, and actually MOST importantly, know that it was the amount of work I put into this labor of love that made me decide to share it; at the end of the day, it is a labor of love, not so much the kind of artwork from within myself that I usually write. Please take it for what it is.**

* * *

The curse of the Undead. I sit alone in this cell in the Northern Undead Asylum and reflect on the marking branded into my withered skin. Why have I not yet lost my mind? I look Hollow, I know I do…why am I not?

She wasn't either. My love, Aiedale…her hair blacker than the darkest night, her eyes green as new leaves in the spring, her face gentle and kind…what a beautiful thing she and I shared in life - she, an aimless Wanderer, and I, a lowly Knight. Our souls were two halves of something greater; we were even branded with the Darksign at the same moment, while we were together. But she's gone now…she left this place, presumably hoping to change something about this dying world. I think she even succeeded in doing something, yet nothing has changed - she and I were so close, I felt echoes of what she was feeling throughout her journey, but those have stopped now, the last one having been triumph.

I sigh, wondering why I still bother to breathe in this stinking, decrepit place. My sole comfort is the pendant I carry with me always, a gift she gave me long ago - a reminder of a happier time, when we were alive, together in Astora. Even if she no longer walks this world, she lives on in my heart…

A sound from above startles me from my thoughts. There is a small skylight that lets a few weak rays of sun into my dank cell, and before I can do much more than blink, a corpse comes tumbling through it, landing on the floor in a heap. I look up; a knight with a helmet that hides his face looks down at me and nods, then walks away.

Confused, I approach the body that was tossed to me. It's holding a key. It can't be…the key to my cell door? With nothing else to do, I pry the piece of metal from cold, dead hands, and try it. The door opens.

I step out into the dark stone corridor, wondering why, how, who? As I walk along, I see Hollowed Undead, too far gone to even notice my presence. All I have for a weapon is the hilt of an old sword, yet I take the time to put them out of their misery. I feel a bit of strengthening essence flow into me with each one that falls - souls, the stuff is called, I know. I follow the corridors that leave me with only one path, sometimes wading through stagnant water, climb up a ladder in what seems like a well, and come to a courtyard.

My eyes take a moment to adjust to the light, and then I see a sword stuck in a pile of ash that is heaped upon the snowy ground. I feel drawn to it, and as I reach out my armor-covered hand to touch it, a flame kindles. This…this is safety - I can feel it, this fire is life and refuge. My love found such bonfires during her journey, bits of memories flit through my mind. She is in the fire. I sit down to rest, in the closest thing to her embrace I will ever know again, and feel a wave of soothing heat flow over me. Funny how I didn't notice how cold I was here until I found fire.

Refreshed, I stand again. In front of me is a pair of heavy wooden doors, and to the right I notice a small rusted gate. I think I can open the doors, but I try the gate first; unfortunately, the lock is on the other side, and it won't open. That done, I approach the set of wooden doors. They're heavy, but I do manage to push them apart; they lead to an enclosed courtyard, crumbling and oddly full of empty urns. I notice a small doorway marked by torches on the left-hand wall, and another set of doors across the courtyard, these made of metal. Those doors look strong and heavy, and are probably the way out of here, and therefore locked; I don't bother trying them, and head for the other path.

I'm barely two-thirds of the way there when an enormous, grotesque monster drops out of the sky. Lumps of either muscle or fat bulge all over its scaly body, horns curl around its head, and its two stubby legs end in clawed feet, its hands clutching a length of wood. I take one look at it and know it's far too powerful for me to fight with what I have, so I run, evading its tremendous club and leaping through the door.

A rusted gate slams behind me. I'm back in a dark, dank, partially-flooded corridor. There's another pile of ash and a sword here on a small section of floor high enough to be dry, somehow, and again, it lights at my touch. I sit down to catch my breath, and the one or two injuries that demon gave me are wiped away; I then stand again, fully healed and ready to go on.

Wading through the stinking water and taking stairs to a doorway that leads out, I come to a hallway with its ceiling gone - daylight again. From the other end, a Hollow shoots arrows at me; I avoid them by hurrying into an open, empty cell to my left. Here, I find a corpse holding a metal shield that's no worse for the wear; I take it, ignoring the stink of wet rotting flesh, hardly believing my luck. With this, I'm able to block the Hollow's arrows as I walk towards it. The Hollow flees, and as I continue on, I stumble across another corpse, this one holding a simple broadsword that's also in perfectly usable condition.

With a true sword and shield, I feel much more prepared to face this world of Undead. I catch up to the Hollow that was shooting at me and kill it easily, then climb some stairs to a doorway walled off by a bright white light. The shining, solid fog is sort of blocking my way, but I feel like I can step through it if I take it slowly; I do, and it vanishes behind me.

I find myself standing on a crumbling balcony overlooking the courtyard in which the first bonfire still burns. To my left is a dead end and stairs far too crumbled to traverse, but to my right are two staircases that are serviceable. I take the one that goes down first, and find the same gate I investigated earlier; as I suspected, the lock is easily undone from this side. Opening it, I now have a shortcut back the way I came. Next, I try climbing the staircase that leads up, but I barely get halfway when an enormous boulder comes rolling down and slams into me, knocking me back to the bottom. I stand up, bruised and battered but not as grievously injured as I would be were I not Undead and fully armored, and run up the stairs to find the culprit; it's another Hollow, one who falls easily. Behind it is a gate, but the gate is locked.

Stymied, I turn around, and suddenly notice one of the walls is smashed open. It takes me a minute to realize the boulder must have broken it down. Curious, I step through the opening. It's another cell, narrower than mine had been and just as damp…and a short ways away, lying on a pile of debris in the sole patch of daylight that filters in through the crumbling ceiling, is an Undead in armor.

I approach him. He looks similar to the knight who gave me the key to my cell, but I can't be sure, as the armor isn't an uncommon style. He doesn't move as I approach, but when I draw near, he speaks.

"Oh, you," he says, and his tone tells me that he is indeed the one who rescued me. "You're no Hollow, eh? Thank goodness…" His voice weakens. "I'm done for, I'm afraid," he rasps. "I'll die soon, then lose my sanity…I wish to ask something of you…You and I, we're both Undead…Hear me out, will you?"

I nod. "You rescued me," I reply, "it's the least I can do. Yes, I'll hear you out."

He sighs. "Regrettably, I have failed in my mission," he tells me. "But perhaps you can keep the torch lit…There is an old saying in my family…Thou who art Undead, art chosen…In thine exodus from the Undead Asylum, maketh pilgrimage to the land of Ancient Lords…When thou ringeth the Bell of Awakening, the fate of the Undead thou shalt know…" He sighs again. "Well, now you know…And I can die with hope in my heart," he says with finality. Then, abruptly, he adds, "Oh, one more thing…Here, take this."

He hands me a dull green flask, filled with golden light. Another flicker crosses my mind: This, too, is life.

"An Estus Flask, an Undead favorite," the knight tells me. "Oh, and this…" He gives me a key. Then he leans back on his deathbed of bricks and says, "Now I must bid farewell…I would hate to harm you after death…So, go now…And thank you…"

I nod to him. "Thank you," I tell him. Then I turn and leave, sparing him no second thought; I've done all that I can for him, and there's no point wasting time on sentimentality.

So now I have a key. I remember the locked gate at the top of the stairs down which the boulder rolled, and I head back up to see if this key unlocks it; it does. A smooth yet claustrophobic stone corridor leads to an oustide balcony littered with bricks that have crumbled from the ramparts and ceiling. Up here, I breathe the freshest air I've experienced in a very long time, but I only have a few moments to relish it; around a corner to my left, two Hollows with broken swords come running, another Hollow with a bow standing back behind them to fire at me. They fall quickly before my sword. Once I reach and kill the bow-wielding Hollow, there is another wall of white light blocking a doorway to my left, and a small open door directly in front of me. The wall of light makes me a bit wary, so I go forward first.

The doorway leads into another empty stone room. To my left, on the far end, is a Hollow soldier, this one with armor and a sword and shield. It runs at me, shield up, sword ready. I block it, then feel a sudden urge to try parrying it now that I'm properly equipped - I am a knight, after all, I can do better than just swing a weapon wildly, though she made do. I fail a couple of times and get a few stab wounds in reward, but then I knock it off-balance and plunge my sword through its chest. Blood sprays everywhere, and I get it off my sword by planting my boot on its torso and pushing. It falls. A swig from my new Estus Flask heals my injuries.

Now there's nothing here but another gate. I try the gate, but this one is locked, and neither of the keys in my possession open it. The wall of white light I passed earlier is my only route to take.

I return to it and pass through it. This time, it doesn't disappear behind me, and I find myself on a narrow ledge overlooking the enclosed courtyard. The monstrosity that assaulted me is still there, directly below me; now I have a shield and sword, I feel I'm ready to face it. I jump down sword-first, plunging my blade into its forehead; demon blood sprays, as I yank my sword out and jump to the ground. It is badly injured, but far from defeated.

There's nowhere to run now, so I fight. Its club is heavy and merciless, smashing pillars I dart past and knocking me down with shockwaves if not direct hits. The Estus Flask saves me. After a little while, I realize I need to dodge _into_ its bloated, scaly form, and keep close, as its club doesn't hurt me when I'm near it unless it takes the time to aim it at me. I am injured, restored by Estus, and injured again, but I keep swinging at the monster with my sword.

Finally, with a tremendous roar, it disintegrates. I'm left with a large key, and this, I know, opens the heavy metal doors I've not yet passed through. I'm also left with a tiny black sprite, which I've heard of, and know is called Humanity; I absorb its essence right away. I then walk over, unlock the doors, and heave them open; I find myself standing on a snowy mountain ledge mostly made of crumbled stone ruins, graves dotting the ground.

She took this same journey, I know she did. A couple of fingers on my pendant, I walk forward to the edge of the outcropping, the bracing mountain air filling my withered lungs; when an enormous raven swoops down from the sky and catches me in its claws, I am not afraid. I know it will take me to Lordran.


	2. Chapter 1

After a long flight, the raven deposits me at another bonfire, this one at the center of a ring of stairs and ruins and already lit, somehow stronger than the ones I kindled in the Northern Undead Asylum; I sit down at it to rest, and heal my injuries. When I do, another flicker of memory, my love calling to me through the fire, tells me that I can use the essence of the black sprite to revive my body to human form, and the souls I gathered to strengthen myself. I do both, my skin filling out and my essence taking on more power, and finally feel almost whole for the first time since she left, if in a different way. Still, her presence comforts me.

Sitting nearby is another Undead, this one not Hollowed even in appearance, though I know he must be Undead, as only Undead roam this land. He wears chainlink armor but no helmet, and his hair is black like mine, just a bit shorter. My love is watching over me, but surely getting advice from people I meet as I travel can only benefit me. Before I approach him, I put away my sword and shield and, for good measure, take off my helmet; I don't want to come across as threatening.

"Hello there," I greet him.

"Well, what do we have here?" he says in a tone that could be nastier. "You must be a new arrival. Let me guess. Fate of the Undead, right? Well, you're not the first. But there's no salvation here. You'd have done better to rot in the Undead Asylum…" I can barely shake my head in refusal of this idea before he continues, "But, too late now. Well, since you're here…Let me help you out. There are actually two Bells of Awakening. One's up above, in the Undead Church. The other is far, far below, in the ruins at the base of Blighttown. Ring them both, and something happens…Brilliant, right?" He smirks. "Not much to go on, but I have a feeling that won't stop you. So, off you go. It is why you came, isn't it? To this accursed land of the Undead?" He chuckles.

The advice reminds me of the mention of the Bell of Awakening from the knight who rescued me from the Asylum. This is useful information, and I wonder what else this Undead knows; I open my mouth, but my questioning expression precedes me.

"Hm?" he grunts. "What, you want to hear more?" He rolls his eyes. "Oh, that's all we need. Another inquisitive soul." After a sigh, he goes on, "Well, listen carefully, then…One of the bells is up above in the Undead Church, but the lift is broken. You'll have to climb the stairs up the ruins, and access the Undead Burg through the waterway. The other bell is back down below the Undead Burg, within the plague-infested Blighttown. But I'd die again before I step foot in that cesspool!" He chuckles again, this time with less humor.

"This-" I begin, intending to ask more about Blighttown.

"Bloody hell, what is it now?" he snaps. "You ask too many questions."

"But I just-"

"Hm? What now? I'm not up for chatting," he spits. "Leave me alone."

It's clear that I won't get anything else out of him, so I oblige him and turn away; it's time to explore this place I've been brought to, anyway.

A corpse is draped over the small, mossy wall of an old well just a few steps away - out in the open, its smell is much less potent than the stench that filled the Asylum. I search it, getting the feeling that all such things should be investigated just in case, and find not one, not two, but _three_ black Humanity sprites; I'm about to absorb one, when a voice whispers in my ear that it's too valuable to waste just now. Tucking the little black lights away, I smile. She's watching over me; I won't ever be lost here.

From here, I continue exploring these mossy ruins, up some steps, through some arches. Before too long, I find a space where the ruins are solid enough to form a room that's full of old urns, and come across another Undead. This one is blond, and carries a shield and a spiked mace, bearing heavier-looking armor; still being presentable, I approach him, too.

"Hello there," he says to me. "I believe we are not acquainted? I am Petrus of Thorolund." He frowns. "Have you business with us?…If not, I'd prefer to keep a distance, if possible."

Confused by his use of the word "us", I don't leave. "My name is Deimos, of Astora," I introduce myself.

"Hello there," he says again, nodding in acknowledgement. He shifts uncomfortably, then adds, "I realize that I have requested that we retain our distance, but I also want you to know that it is not meant in ill-will. Here, take this." He holds out an object in one hand; I hesitate. "No, go ahead," he encourages me. "It's for you."

I take the item. It's a coin made of copper, its face bearing the likeness of Old Man McLoyf, god of medicine and drink. The sight makes me smile, for it reminds me of life before Undeath. It may not be worth much here, or maybe it will; either way, I'm going to keep it. For luck.

To my right are some stairs leading further up into the ruins; I don't want to bother Petrus again, at least not yet, so I walk up them, and the next set. At the second landing, I notice an archway through which is a dark space; I can't tell if it's safe or not, and there are more stairs to climb. Deciding to check it on my way back, I continue climbing. This is the last set of stairs, as it turns out, and at the top is a corpse with a slight white glow. When I reach out and take it, I find that it's a soul, one of a simple lost Undead - it's made of the essence of souls, and I crush it in my hand to absorb its power; the resulting strength that flows into me isn't a lot, but it's not very little, either.

With nowhere else to go this way, I head back down the stairs, and this time take a closer look at the dark space. It's as if two open windows are looking in on a bottomless elevator shaft. For a moment, I hesitate. Then I feel a faint, encouraging nudge, warmth prickling through my skin, and I smile and jump down, no longer afraid. It turns out to hardly even be a drop. A narrow passage leads out through the wall; the jump from here is a bit higher, but still harmless. Now I'm in a grassy patch of land outside surrounded by ruin walls, and here, I find several treasure chests.

One contains six handfuls of bones burned to ash and imbued with a will to return to a bonfire, which I can use to return from anywhere. Another contains a spiked mace like the one Petrus wields, called a Morning Star, and a talisman, the use of which I can't quite determine just now. I smile at the Morning Star - my love sometimes called herself a "Mourning Star", and I know she must have loved this weapon; for the memories, I do too, though I probably won't use it. The third treasure chest, which I find around a corner, contains four cracked Red Eye Orbs - their use is malevolent in intention, I can tell that from looking at them, but I'll hold onto them.

My treasures obtained, I look for a way out of this enclosed area; I eventually find one, a narrow passage between walls, and along it I find a fourth treasure chest, this one containing four of Lloyd's Talismans. These render Estus useless, I remember from when I was alive in Astora; rather useless to _me_ now, since I need Estus to sustain myself as an Undead, but I'll hold onto them too, just in case.

From here, I jump down a ledge, into a graveyard. Some bones that are lying on the ground come together and assemble into two armed skeletons; I start to draw my sword, when a warning at the back of my mind tells me they're much too strong to fight. Trusting her, I find the stairs that lead back into the ruins, and run. When I glance behind me and see that they're chasing me, I start sprinting, through a doorway, splashing through a pool, and out again, headed for the bonfire. I only need to catch my breath once on the way; when the fire washes over me, I know I'm safe.

Relieved, I stand up again, then walk back to the room with the pool, curious about it. On the far end, opposite where I enter, is a statue of a woman with a newborn in her arms and sitting on a seat of branches; there's a treasure chest next to her, but it's already open and empty. Nothing else is here, though, so I turn and leave, the water cool as it runs over my boots without soaking through; it doesn't even cross my mind what's probably washing off of them right now.

I don't think there's anything else in the ruins to find now, and I'm not going to go back to the graveyard; instead, I explore around the bonfire area, and I find a spiral staircase leading down. Below the bonfire area, in a small cave covered with bars, is a blond woman on her knees, head bent as though in constant prayer.

"Hello?" I say.

She glances up at me and shakes her head slightly, and I realize she can't speak. Making a mental note of her, I walk away respectfully.

A little ways past the mute woman is another set of spiral stairs leading down, the outside edge dangerously open to the elements, that reveal that the grassy space I was standing on is in fact the top of a tower. Through a grate is a lift that activates when I step on a pressure plate in the center, carrying me down and down and down…I feel a bit apprehensive, but my love isn't telling me to turn back yet; I draw my sword just in case.

It's oddly dark down here, as though the daylight simply can't reach this far, and I walk out cautiously. Down and behind some stairs, I find a corpse with another soul I can use to gain more soul essence, this of a soldier, not just an Undead; when I crush it in my hands, the surge of power I'm rewarded with is much greater. Carrying on, still slowly and carefully, I descend some more stairs to find a ragged Hollow facing a wall with its back to me. It doesn't attack me; it seems too far gone to even notice me, as the first ones I encountered in the Northern Undead Asylum were. Still, I can gain strength from it, and it's too far gone to help, so even though it means me no harm, I feel no remorse when I kill it, nor when I kill the other crestfallen Hollows around the place, of which there turn out to be a surprising number - some standing against walls, some sitting, some praying to nothing, even one lying down at the edge of a cliff face, whom I simply knock off with one blow from my sword. One of the later ones seems to be crying over a dead corpse on which I find an Estoc - a sharp sword, but inferior to my broadsword in every way, unfortunately. They all carry broken swords, and they move to attack me once I attack them first, sometimes swinging wildly in the air, but they're no threat.

While slaughtering the Hollows, I accidentally break open an urn that happens to contain a corpse. This one died of some form of magic, I can tell from the bluish glow of its flesh, and its arms are imbued with some sort of curse energy; on a hunch, if distastefully, I take both of them. A narrow wooden bridge across some water leads forward from here, but this is where my love's wisdom tells me to stop - whatever's across that bridge, it's too powerful to face just yet. Trusting her, I turn and go back, and search around some other corners. Inside a tower, some spiral stairs lead up to a locked gate; along another set of stairs that lead down a short ways before crumbling into nothingness is a cell, and inside the cell is a man.

"Hello?" I ask.

"Hrm?" he grunts, looking up at me. He blinks, then says, "Well, this is unusual. You haven't lost your head. And more importantly you're free. How on Earth…Well, I shouldn't pry. I am Rickert of Vinheim," he introduces himself. "I was once an established smith, but look at me now." He shakes his head, looking down again. "Can you believe it?"

No, I can't, but not because I found a man locked up. A smith! "I am Deimos of Astora," I tell him.

"Hm?" His head jerks up again; I think he expected me to simply leave. "What is it? Have you…?" He seems scattered, and takes a moment to find words. "Oh, no, don't worry. I have no intention of escape," he finally tells me, to my surprise. "It's safe here," he explains. "I can't bear the thought of going Hollow out there. Although," he adds, "I must admit, I've not much to occupy myself." His expression brightens, and I know I've found an ally. "How about this? I could forge your weapons, albeit with minimal tools. I will show you what made me the best in Vinheim."

"Yes, please," I say, giving a small smile.

Unfortunately, just now, he can't reinforce any of my weapons or armor, for he lacks a material called titanite. He can, however, repair my equipment, at very little cost - souls are the currency here, and I have plenty from the soulmasses I gathered and the Hollows. With these, I have him repair everything in my possession, apart from the broken sword hilt, which I intend to discard when an opportunity presents itself.

Rickert also offers a few wares to sell, and I take a look. Interestingly, he sells a wand and a couple of rudimentary magic spells; I'm not up for this yet, so I decline. Still, I'm curious about what he's doing here, and I open my mouth to ask.

"Hm? What is it?" he asks me before I can say anything. "There's nothing to talk about. We're both cursed; Undead. But what's there, really, to moan about?"

This makes me smile a bit more. "A wise view," I comment. Then I nod at him slightly, for there's nothing else to do. "Farewell."

"Good-bye, then," he says. "Keep your head on, out there. You really help break the monotony."

Again, I nod at him; then I leave, taking the lift back up to the bonfire. Here, I rest, healing the few scratches left on me by the Hollows down below, and using some of the souls I've gathered to strengthen myself a bit more. When I stand again, I back go over to the warrior sitting nearby; I already almost consider him more than just a stranger.

He smiles humorlessly at me. "Oh, have you seen that morose lass?" he asks, and I know he's referring to the caged woman below. "The Fire Keeper. She's stuck keeping that bonfire lit. Sad, really. She's mute and bound to this forsaken place. They probably cut her tongue out back in her village, so that she'd never say any god's name in vain." He shakes his head, though he's almost smiling. "How do these martyrs keep chugging along? I'd peter out in an instant." He then chuckles; he seems fond of doing that, and I can't really begrudge him for it.

"I would too," I agree - martyrdom never made much sense to me. Then I turn and go, and decide spontaneously to go back to talk to Petrus some more.

"Oh my…you again?" he asks as I approach.

"Yes," I say hesitantly.

He frowns. Then he says, "Oh, I know. How about this…I have to await my companions here anyway, so, what if I were to teach you some Miracles? Would that please you?"

I'm not exactly the most faith-ful of knights, but I am already part of the Way of White Covenant - as much to please my love as to be an official knight - and Miracles are the art of the covenant I belong to. "Yes," I answer.

"Very well," he says. "Then first, a covenant with the Gods."

"I'm already part of the covenant," I inform him.

He blinks, then smiles. "Now, let me share my Miracles. Only, their ultimate effectiveness will be determined by your efforts, and your faith."

My faith is lacking, but I also don't have enough souls to purchase any Miracles from him just now anyway. He also offers a talisman, and the Thorolund Talisman - a talisman, as it turns out, is the tool needed for casting Miracles; I'm glad I already found one, as I don't even have enough souls to purchase the simplest one from him. I do cast a coveting eye on the Thorolund Talisman, though - its power is more based on itself, and less on the faith of the user, which I would certainly find useful.

Though I can't purchase anything from him, I do have to ask, "You mentioned that you were waiting for your companions. Who are you waiting for?"

"My companions are M'lady and her young knights," Petrus answers. "She is young, but burdened by an Undead mission. We are her defenses, to keep her from harm."

"And what is this…Undead mission?" I ask, curious.

"An Undead mission?" he repeats. "Regrettably, I cannot share that with you. But," he goes on in an odd tone of voice, "you are my pupil. Perhaps if you show your faith…" He trails off meaningfully, and I know I'm being asked for a bribe.

"How much?" I ask resignedly.

"900 souls," he tells me.

I shake my head. "I would, but I don't have that many. Another time."

He nods. "Come again," he tells me. "The effectiveness of the teachings depend upon your faith."

I nod in return, and walk away. As I go, I take out my shield (my sword is already drawn) and put my helm back on. It's time to go adventuring, I've put it off far too long already. Luckily, I have my love's guidance to point the way.


	3. Chapter 2

Up some stairs along the other side of the mountain, I find some Hollowed warriors. They're armed, and when I approach, they attack; there's even one throwing firebombs at me from high up. This is more like it.

A small soulmass is on a corpse behind the soldiers on the lower level. Stairs cut into the mountainside lead up to some more soldiers, including the one throwing firebombs at me; I'm being a bit careless with how I fight these creatures, but it's nothing my Estus Flask can't fix. They _are_ creatures, not people, not anymore; all they want is for me to join them in being Hollow and dead in spirit, and I will never be that.

After I kill the soldiers up top and climb some more stairs, I come to a narrow walkway, at the end of which is another corpse from which I pillage a small soulmass. But there's nothing beyond that, and for a moment, I'm confused. Then the voice of my love whispers from the pendant I carry, telling me to look along the wall for a small, dark passage. Moments later, I find what she meant - I might have disregarded it, for a thin layer of water makes the floor look so black as to appear as a bottomless pit, but it's safe to traverse.

Inside and to my left, I find an undead rat guarding another corpse from which I pillage a small soulmass. The waterway is very narrow, and it's difficult to swing my broadsword here - the rat gets a good bite on me before I kill it, and I can feel poison trying to take hold of me for a few moments before it fades. As a precaution, I take a swig from my Estus flask, this the third since I left the bonfire guarded by the Fire Keeper…I have enough for seven drinks left, not just two - there was more Estus gathered from that bonfire than others.

Right now, I could go on, but I decide to head back to Petrus and give him his 900 souls in exchange for his answer first - I need all the information I can gather. On my way, I absorb the souls from the three soulmasses I've collected; what I don't do is rest at the bonfire, for just as the bonfire refreshes me, so too does it revive all the Undead I've slain. Same as before, I put away my sword and shield and remove my helm as a show of good faith - it's dangerous to trust people around here, that's as true for anyone else as it is for me, so I need to be careful not to appear dangerous.

"Oh, hello," he greets me. "I will teach you Miracles. A promise is a promise, after all."

"Thank you, but I've come to ask again about the Undead mission you mentioned," I reply. "I have the souls you asked for." 900 of my gathered souls pass from me to him, leaving me with 652.

"Very well," he says. "Surely I can tell you, of all people…Undead clerics are given a mission to seek Kindling. Kindling is the art of feeding bonfires with humanity. Through Kindling, we shall one day be granted magnificent powers."

Thinking of the three black sprites I have tucked away, I nod. "Thank you," I tell him. "I'll be off now."

"Come again," he says, and for good measure he reminds me once more, "The effectiveness of the teachings depend upon your faith."

"I remember," I reassure him, and I head back to the dark passage, taking out my sword and shield and re-donning my helm as I go.

This time, I turn right, and before long, I come to a gate that does not open from this side. A little before that, though, is another narrow passage to my left, and this is how I exit. I climb some stairs - so many stairs! - and find myself on the roofs of some stone buildings, where more Hollows await me; I slash at one, and parry and riposte the other. Barrels lie here and there, and weeds grow all over the stones; a short wooden bridge links two areas, and across it is a Hollow who tries to throw firebombs at me - I cut it down before it can. Another Hollow comes up behind me from inside a nearby building, and it gets a hit or two on me with its battle axe before I parry and riposte it. I've noticed that doing this, thoroughly impaling my foes in a spray of blood, seems to collect more souls from them somehow.

Given space to breathe, I check inside the building the Hollow came from, but there's nothing inside, nothing at all, apart from a bunch of crates and bags and barrels. To be sure, I sheath my sword and punch all the containers open - no need to waste my sword's durability on this - but there is truly nothing to be found.

Outside, across a space, is a doorway walled off by white light. I'm not too uneasy about it, but as I approach it, something prompts me to turn to the right. On a lower balcony, I see a corpse, and that the way down to it is blocked only by a few barrels; I go over and punch them out of the way, then jump down. From the corpse, I gain a soulmass, larger than most of the others I've seen; the surge I get when I crush it in my hand is also stronger.

This balcony turns out to actually be the top of a tiny tower, and there's no simple way down; I have to jump down a couple of rooftops to a lower path, but it turns out that none of the drops are significant. When I get to the bottom, a couple of Hollows climb up from over the low walls lining the ramparts; immediately, I draw my sword again and raise my shield. They both swing at me at the same time and are both knocked back by the solid metal; one slash from my sword cuts both of them down at once. A minute later, a third sneaks up behind me, but I quickly kill it, too.

There is a wooden ramp going up one way, but I turn away from it and cross a narrow stone bridge into another building, this one with wooden floors. Nothing is inside it, but down a few steps and out another door is another corpse to pillage; this one, however, carries only a piece of rubbish - useless garbage, it has no use and no value. Barely have I processed this when four Hollows climb over the sides of the ramparts to attack me; I back up a bit and cut them down without much difficulty. With the threat gone, I start to drop the rubbish back on the ground, but my guiding star stays my hand. Why she wants me to hold onto this worthless trash, I do not know, but I won't question it - she wouldn't lead me astray.

From here, there's a wooden ramp up to a ladder, at the top of which is another narrow rampart. To the left, the path is blocked by fallen bricks, but to my right, all the way at the end, is another corpse, and this one bears a Humanity for me to add to my collection; I touch a few fingers to my pendant and think my question, but she still tells me to hold onto them for now. Obeying her, I drop down a crumbled side of the parapet I was on, and find myself back where I started. Now I'm faced with a choice: traverse the white light, or go back down and see what was up that ramp? Naturally, I choose the ramp; it leads to a dead end, but I'm glad I checked.

At last, I go back to traverse the white light. As I walk, it occurs to me, with all these buildings around, that I've probably actually already found Undead Burg. On the way, I glance down and notice a corpse I haven't pillaged yet hanging halfway out a window; it seems like it can only be accessed the way I just went, but that ramp led to nowhere…To be sure, I go back down and check again, and this time I find an easy-to-miss staircase to the left that leads up into the building I was just looking at. Only the corpse is in here, and it only carries a small soulmass, but every soul counts, so I'm still glad I went back. Apart from the corpse, there's a set of stairs that goes straight into the roof (which is probably the floor of the above room); I swing at it once with my sword, just to be sure, then turn and leave.

Finally, I do traverse the white light; it fades away behind me, and I'm now inside another building, this one with floors made of stone. Behind a staircase is a corpse that carries another small soulmass. At the top of the stairs is a floor with two doorways; one to my left leads to a drop down to just before where the white light was, and the other to my right leads to still more stairs.

Up these stairs is a castle rampart, and as soon as I reach it, an enormous red drake swoops out of the sky and lands in front of me with a tremendous rumble; I stumble back as the force shakes the earth. Alarmed, I hurry to get my balance, and a moment later it takes off again, flying up over the towers above; I watch it go, wondering if I will have to fight it in the future.

Hardly shaken, I move on, and I come to a rooftop upon which are three Hollows, and a fourth firing at me from above with a crossbow; I do get badly injured here, but it's nothing Estus can't restore. One of the three drops a Hollow warrior helm for me to salvage, though I've no use for it, and after I kill the Hollow bearing a crossbow, I go back down and open a wooden door I noticed. It leads to a small, empty room with a smaller balcony, and on the balcony is a corpse that carries a wooden shield; it's lighter than the one I'm using, but overall, it's inferior.

That done, I come back out again, and walk over to a path that leads to another rooftop where two armored Hollows await me. My love tells me not to, but they don't scare me, and for once, I disobey her. First, I lure one away from the other, and it walks over to me, then starts strafing slowly back and forth, shield up; I wait, and wait, and still it doesn't attack. Eventually getting bored, I swing my sword at it; this brings it to life, and it start stabbing at me with its spear. It gets a few hits in, and then I manage to parry and riposte, and it goes down. I repeat the process with the other one, which is just coming after me now that I've attacked its companion - it doesn't waste time strafing, but otherwise, it goes down like the first.

I'm down to three swallows of Estus left in my Flask now - I'll need a bonfire soon. But first, I need to find out what I just fought my way to. Some crates have been stacked around a stairwell leading down into the building I'm on; at the bottom is a room with a doorway that leads to an Undead sitting on the floor of a balcony, surrounded by trinkets. Cautiously, I approach him, unsure if he's Hollow or not - he appears to be, but he's also not attacking me.

"Well now," he says, "You seem to have your wits about you, hmm? Then you're a welcome customer! I trade for souls. Everything's for sale!" He gives an unsettling giggle that indicates he's on the verge of becoming as Hollow as he appears, even if he's not there yet.

Since I'm here, I look over his wares. He has some interesting items, weapons, armor…One thing, a key, stands out to me - it unlocks residences in Undead Burg, and I know that keys are valuable, so I purchase it. With only so many souls left, I decide to leave it at that.

"Things are getting treacherous in these parts," he comments to me out of nowhere. "A horrible goat demon has moved in below. And up above, there's that humongous drake, and a bull demon too. If you stick around this place, it might end up being your grave!" Again, he gives that laugh like a giggle and a cackle in one.

"Is there-?"

"Eh? I'm not here to chit-chat," he informs me. "We talk business, or we talk nothing at all."

I nod. "Farewell, then."

"Thank you kindly," he says, and again gives his creepy laugh; I turn and walk away, unsure what to make of him.

Back inside, behind some cupboards, is a Hollow who breaks out to attack me; I've got the hang of parrying and riposting now, and it doesn't even manage to scratch me. Past that is a short, enclosed bridge that leads to a landing at the top of some stairs; down the stairs is another narrow path along which are four ragged Hollows - I kill one, then another, then the third and fourth at once, all with one swing each. Beyond them is a ladder, and the ladder leads to a rooftop on which I find a corpse carrying ten throwing knives. Dropping down from the other side of the roof would only set me back, and would injure me as well; I go back the way I came, sliding down the ladder, then climbing all the way back up to where the Hollow soldier that shot at me with a crossbow stood.

From here, there's a narrow, crumbling stone bridge leading into another building diagonally from the right, and directly to my left is a short bridge of wooden planks into a room that appears to contain a bonfire - I go for the bonfire and light it. Before I sit down to rest, though, I hear her, telling me to absorb one of the Humanities I've gathered. I'm not sure why, but I do it, then sit down. Only enough Estus for five drinks fills my Flask here; something about that bonfire kept by the Fire Keeper was special…

No. No, I can make this the same, by…by offering the humanity within me. In the same way as I revived my body, I offer up the humanity I just absorbed and kindle the flame, and as it grows, more Estus fills my flask. Clutching my pendant in my hand, I smile, sending my thanks to my love who went before me, whose experience now saves me from much confusion and frustration. After taking a moment, I strengthen myself further with some souls I've gathered, then stand. There are some stairs in this room, but they've crumbled beyond use before they reach anything, so I can only go back out the way I came.

Outside, all the Hollows I've killed are up again; I only have to kill a few of the ones I've already passed, though - I can ignore all but the closest ones - and move on. Once I have, I get an urge to sprint across the bridge, and I do; I'm glad for it when plumes of fire explode behind me. A few Hollows are waiting for me on the other side, and I manage to salvage a cracked roundshield from one, but they're little threat. There's a metal bar door here, but it doesn't open from this side; I have to go out the open wooden door one of the Hollows came through. Here, I notice two sets of stairs to my right, and I take the shorter one first, into the building beside me. One Hollow is inside, but I kill it easily; through a doorway is a narrow space with another Hollow, and this one puts up a good fight, but I cut it down in the end. Back in the first room, there are a few more stairs that lead to what looks like a dining room of sorts, and here, I find a treasure chest. Inside the chest are five black firebombs; fire splash damage flits through my mind, as part of a memory that isn't mine, and I smirk as I tuck them away.

Exploration finished, I go back out, then up the other stairway. Up here, I find a relatively open space, where three Hollows are waiting; I cut down the first two easily, but I try to be too fancy with the third and take a few hits. After all three have fallen, I notice something in my chest, an odd feeling just like the one I got when I absorbed Humanity sprites - somehow, I've gained a bit of humanity from my enemies. This makes me smile.

Now I turn around and head for a ladder that was next to the stairs. This leads to a rooftop next to a set of wooden platforms that turns out to be where the Hollows were throwing firebombs at me from - there are three of them. I swing my sword at one, but misjudge my momentum, and I end up knocking both the Hollow and myself onto the lower floor; luckily, it's far from a fatal fall, and down here I finish it off. Victorious, I climb back up to take care of the other two and cut them down quickly; from one, I pillage two regular firebombs - these, too, I tuck away smugly. There's a corpse on the roof up here, and from it I pillage another small soulmass. Done, I head back down.

From here, I have three options: A closed wooden door, a stout castle tower, and some stairs leading forward and down. I start with the wooden door, which is closest; it turns out to be locked, but the key I bought from the Undead merchant opens it. Nothing much is inside the house, but out on a balcony is a treasure chest that holds three golden pine resin, a valuable weapon enhancer; I put this away for now, then immediately go back out, because one of the Hollow soldiers ahead spotted me from my place on the balcony and is creeping up around towards me. When it reaches me, I easily take it down. Inside the stout castle tower is a spiral staircase leading up to a lookout spot where a Hollow with a crossbow is waiting; it takes a couple of hits, but I destroy it. With that, nothing can sneak up on me as I move forward.

Back to the open space and down the stairs, some more Hollow soldiers wait for me; I fight them, in a way that's becoming routine by now - I take a few hits, but it's nothing serious. Then, there are stairs going forward and up and stairs going down to my right; I go down first, as I have a feeling that up is my ultimate goal. At the bottom, one way that goes behind me is a narrow path that leads to a ledge over a bottomless pit with nothing in between, while the other way, which leads forward, is blocked by a large, armored figure. I can see a corpse beyond it, which it appears to be guarding, but this thing is big, and something tells me I don't want to mess with it right now; I turn back and go up.

A little ways past a landing, a Hollow pushes a burning barrel down the stairs to hit me; I can't avoid it, and the blow hurts. It then comes running at me, and I cut it down; from it, I pillage a Hollow soldier shield, which is only slightly inferior to the shield I currently carry. Through a doorway at the top of the stairs, I find myself in a large tower, with a spiral staircase that runs around and around for several floors; there's a door here at the bottom, but it's locked, and the key I bought doesn't open it. So I go up, one floor, two floors, until I come to a doorway blocked by a wall of white light. Nothing seems to be on the actual floors apart from some barrels, but something tells me to check them; I'm glad I do, as one of the barrels on the upper floor contains a sparkly little creature with a crystal on its back. The thing is harmless, and takes quite a few hits, but I kill it, and from it I get some chunks of titanite, including two that twinkle mysteriously; I store these away, and her knowledge tells me there's nothing more to find.

My instinct now is to go through the wall of light, but for some reason, my love tells me to go back and fight that enormous armored figure instead. I'm wary of it, but I can't tell much of what she's trying to tell me from here; resignedly, I go all the way back to the bonfire.

Once I make it back, I sit, and through the flames, I see glimpses of her experiences: repeated fights with the armor-clad creature, darting around and chipping away at its health, many losses, many deaths, perseverance, and ultimately a victory that rewarded her with a treasure from the guarded corpse that was invaluable to her for most of her journey. I'm not so sure I can do the same, though - not because I'm not strong, but because I'm not quite as foolishly stubborn as she was, and it took her a lot of attempts to take the thing down.

I sigh. Being here, next to the fire through which I can feel her spirit, after all this running and fighting I've been doing, I don't want to get up. I strengthen myself a bit with the souls I've gathered, then simply lie down and rest.


	4. Chapter 3

In the moments before I wake up, I see her face, feel her presence here with me, warming me…for a moment, I'm not Undead anymore, I'm truly dead, and in heaven. Then I wake, and her embrace fades to a warmth radiating from the fire that is what's left of her soul. Still, I stand, ready now to face whatever this forsaken land has for me. She still wants me to fight the armored monster, and now, I'm ready.

It's important that I kill everything else beforehand, in order to ensure that I'll have room to maneuver, so I thoroughly fight my way back to where I was. I manage to scavenge another firebomb from one of the rooftop Hollows, it takes me seven drinks from my Estus Flask for me to be at full health when I'm ready to face the dark foe, and I gain another humanity from my enemies; at last, it's just me and the creature of black armor.

Steeling myself, I lope down the stairs. Its back is to me, and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to start this fight. Do I run up to it? Do I try to sneak? Worried, I apply some of the golden pine resin I found to my sword, then attack as if it were a normal creature.

Before I take more than three steps, it hears me, and it turns to face me. We run at each other, and I lash out with my lightning-imbued weapon as it slashes at me with its huge black sword. It's powerful - two hits from that black blade and I'm nearly dead. Only by running backwards do I have time to take a swig from my Estus Flask, and even then that costs me another hit. Running backwards seems to do something, though, so I continue, striking at it whenever I think I can take the risk; at more than one point, I genuinely believe I'm going to die. Then, not even as far as back where my love fought and killed this same black knight, it suddenly gives a terrible scream and disintegrates, leaving me with a chunk of titanite.

One swallow of Estus is all I have left, and it's not nearly enough to fully heal all my injuries, but the black knight is no more. Even with a few scratches still on me, I jog back down to the corpse it was guarding to see what great treasure I've earned. On the corpse's hand is a ring set with a blue tearstone, my first magic ring to wear, as it was hers - this conjures an aura of protection when its wearer is on the verge of death, and now I understand why this treasure saved her so many times during her journey. Gratefully, I put it on, proud at having so relatively easily vanquished a creature that stymied her for a long time.

Of course, I have to go all the way back to the bonfire to refill my Estus Flask, and I have some souls with which I can strengthen myself further, but the black knight is gone for good, so the next time I go out will be the time I finally traverse the white light at the top of the tower. All this is what I think as I return to the bonfire, but when I get there, I realize I have enough souls to buy a whole new set of armor from that near-Hollow merchant - a set that's not as heavy as what I now wear, I think. Instead of strengthening myself, I go to purchase that armor from him…My love never changed her outfit apart from the headgear, I know, but she was always committed to being a wanderer, wearing the clothes with which she traversed the lands aimlessly - a knight's outfit is not so set. When I fight my way through the few foes between me and the trinket stand, I experience some of the trouble she had with those two shield-bearing Hollows, but eventually, with parrying and riposting, I get past them again.

"Oh, there you are," the Undead says when I reach him. "Still keeping your marbles all together? Then, go ahead, don't be a nitwit. Never hurts to splurge when your days are numbered!" He gives his eerie giggle again. I simply nod, and ask to see his armor.

The chain link armor is far from flashy, but it's less heavy than what I'm wearing, and it will therefore keep me alive better - right now, that's what matters, and I buy all of it. I offer to talk to him some more, but he repeats that "we talk business, or we talk nothing at all," so I bid him farewell.

"Ah, thank you, very much," he says. "Come back soon!" He gives his creepy giggle again. After walking back into the building, I compare my new armor to my current armor, mindful of the Hollow in the opposite corner of the room. Only now can I see that, apart from being lighter than what I'm wearing, this armor is inferior in almost every way. My love preferred to be nimble, but I want to stay alive - I wasted two thousand souls. Oh well; no fixing it now.

Slightly annoyed, I head back up, refresh myself at the bonfire, then fight my way through the Hollows again, collecting useless bits of armor and weaponry from my fallen enemies as I go. On the rooftop with the firebomb-throwing ones, however, they overwhelm me, even with my new magic ring, and I die, for the first time since my journey began.

It's the oddest sensation…the Darksign burns on my skin, the pain growing as my strength leaves me and I collapse to the floor. In the moment I finish falling, there's only fire, and then, my body Hollowed once more, I wake up by the bonfire I kindled. Even without my mind gone, the feeling of being in a Hollow body is very distinct, more so than humans probably assume - it's a sort of numbness, as if the skin that senses touch is just not there. It truly feels like death.

Now I see why she wanted me to save the Humanity sprites instead of absorbing them all at once - I can use one now, and quickly revive myself, so I do. Then I go back out and try again, but this time I die even sooner, the Darksign again enveloping me in flames and dropping my remains at the bonfire. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong…I can only keep trying, as I know she would. Before I go back out, I revive myself once more - even though it's been such a short time since I had no choice in the matter, I already can't stand being Hollowed.

I'm able to recover what few souls I'd accrued before I died last time, left as a blood smear near the spot of my death; I also gain a humanity from a foe by then, which is a bit of a relief. From there, I keep going; as I do, I realize it's a matter of learning when to use my shield and slash with my sword at openings, and when to parry and riposte. The problem was that I started getting careless; I need to get my guard back up, and keep it up.

At last, I'm back at the white light. I've only taken two drinks from my Estus Flask, and I only have a few lingering scratches - I take that third swig, just to be sure I'm ready for whatever's coming, golden light pouring down my throat and spreading through me to fix everything that's damaged. Thus prepared, I traverse the glowing barrier.

On the other side, I'm up on the ramparts of a castle wall; the white light doesn't fade behind me, and in the distance, I can see another wall of white light in a doorway. To be sure, I try to go back, but can't; I'm trapped here, unless I use a handful of Homeward Bone ash, and I see no reason to do so, really. Assessing the limited area, I can't help but think of the enclosed courtyard at the Northern Undead Asylum - if I walk far, will another demon reveal itself?

Slowly, I start walking, my shield up. About halfway across, the sound of crossbows being fired behind me gets my attention; a bolt catches me in the shoulder, and I turn around. Two Hollows are shooting at me from the top of the tower I just climbed the inside of, but no sooner do I notice this than my attention is drawn to a ladder against the wall to the side of the door I came out through; I can climb it to get rid of them. They start shooting at me the moment I crest the top of the ladder, but they both miss; I swing at them and cut them down without getting a scratch. Now whatever monster may be coming will be alone. My pendant warms, and a memory of my own surfaces: me plunging down onto the demon from above in the Northern Undead Asylum. If the coming demon is similar - and didn't that Undead say there was a bull demon? - I can do the same thing, only again and again, and that way I'll be out of danger most of the time. As I slide back down the ladder, I wonder how many tries it took my love to think of that, as she was somewhat slow-witted.

More confident now, I jog forward, shield raised. Before I even reach the other wall of white light, a huge hulking demon drops down from the sky; this one's hairy, and more muscular than bloated, but it's a similar size, and bears a similar weapon - I can do this.

Immediately, I run back and climb the ladder; it tries to hit me but is too slow. When I reach the top, I look down at it from the top of the tower, and see it looking up at me, its expression - if I could guess at an interpretation of the face on its skinless, animalistic head - stymied. Smirking, I jump down at it, sword-first; it gives a tremendous roar as my blade plunges through its bare skull, and I leap off onto the stone floor. I'm about to go for the ladder again, when I realize that the monster is too close, and it could easily knock me off; so, I turn and run the other way, hoping to lead it away from the ladder. It follows me, but when I try to run back past it again, it crushes me; I'm not dead, but I'm badly hurt - I'm too slow to run past it, my armor is too heavy. The beast almost gets another hit on me as I frantically climb the ladder again, but I manage to get too high too quickly, and I take a drink from my Estus Flask once I'm at the top, catching my breath. I look down at the demon again, and this time, I hesitate a moment too long: As I plunge down towards it, it leaps up on top of the tower in a single bound; I didn't think it could do that, and am alarmed to see that it can, as it means I have no safe spot in this fight. Well, the idea that I might have had one was too good to be true in the first place, I suppose.

Continuing to try to to lead it away from the ladder is still my best bet, but I'm much too slow to run back past it. She did, I know she did, but my armor…my thick, heavy armor…it might be what allows me to survive blows from the monster's hammer, but it's also the reason I can't dodge it. One more plunging attack is all I can manage - the next time I try to scale the ladder, it knocks me off, and I die.

Back at the bonfire again. Now that I know what I'm facing, I start having second thoughts about the chain link armor I bought - it's _much_ lighter than what I'm wearing now, and I need to be able to move faster in this fight. Maybe I should get to the wall, then change my armor for the one battle - I'll be much more vulnerable, yes, but I'll also be faster, and that might make all the difference. With the last of my Humanity sprites, I revive my Hollowed body, and then I fight my way through the Hollows to the tower again. On the way, I wonder if firebombs might prove useful. After a minute's thought, I dismiss the idea - relying on that would leave me wide open, which I can't afford, especially not if I'm going to be wearing weaker armor.

Another humanity accumulates in my bosom as I cut down the Hollows. When I face the last one before the tower, I knock it off a crumbling staircase, and lure it - so I think - into a bottomless pit, which it jumps into right after taking a drink from its own Estus Flask (which explains why Lloyd's Talismans might prove useful to me after all). However, I never receive its essence, and after waiting for a minute, it comes sprinting up the stairs the black knight once stood at the base of. Thus have I discovered the point of that path at the bottom of the stairs that ends in a bottomless pit: It's to catch anyone who falls over the side of that staircase. This is something I hope I will never need to use, but it's interesting to discover, because she never figured that one out. In truth, I haven't liked following her lead this whole way, the fact that she's the one who went through all this first and figured it out on her own while I'm left with essentially a cheat book - I'm grateful to her, but I don't like relying on her. Just knowing that I can still discover things she never learned suddenly makes this journey feel much more _mine_.

When I climb to the top of the tower and traverse the white light, to my relief, I discover that the demon has returned to wherever it hides. Given a brief respite, I reclaim the power I lost when the demon killed me, then climb the ladder and kill the two Hollows with crossbows. One of them drops some of its own armor, but more importantly, it drops a shard of titanite; I need this, exactly this size of a piece, to reinforce my weapons and armor with the smith in the dark area down below…but not right now. Right now, at last, it's time to change into my lighter set of armor.

This jingly metal cloth makes me feel positively naked - it _is_ easier to move around in, but I wonder if I might as well just put on some of the battered, useless stuff I've stripped from Hollows. No…no, that would be going too far. Still, I'm going to get out of this feeble suit as soon as the demon is vanquished. Determined, I slide down the ladder, then jog forward, shield up, ready to face the monster again. The moment it lands, I turn and run for the ladder, and I'm on top of the tower before it can do anything.

My initial plunging attack hurts it badly. When I land on the floor, I dart out from under it and run along the rampart, and this time, I'm fast enough to avoid it. Then, when I turn and see it running at me, I run at it, and make a leaping dodge past it that I had no idea I was capable of. I get to the top of the tower a second time without taking even a glancing hit, and plunge; I repeat the pattern, this time not leaping as I dodge, and again, I get to the top without the monster even touching me. For a third time, I do it all again, this time taking another leaping dodge, and finally, the beast's hammer manages to knock me down. Even though I'm not wearing plate armor, I survive this; I get up and run to the ladder, and I'm still somehow fast enough to avoid getting hit again. This is the fourth plunging strike I've made on this creature, and I know it's about to die, so instead of dodging again, I stand under its massive, hairy legs, and swing my sword. Four or five swipes, and it bellows and disintegrates, leaving me with another Humanity sprite and an extra Homeward Bone.

I can hardly believe it. Such feeble, lightweight metal fabric actually served me well! I'm glad now that I bought it. Still, it's time to change back into what I'm used to - heavy, but comfortable for its weight. The walls of white light are gone now, and I jog along the rampart through the doorway I've just earned the right to pass through. Inside are two consecutive rooms that are empty save for storage containers, containers that she tells me contain nothing. Then there's a stairwell, and I find myself under an archway that seems to bridge two separate towers; across from me is a locked wooden door, to my left is a wide open bridge that I feel wary of, and to my right is a two-tiered balcony with a breathtaking view.

Slowly, I walk out, until I'm standing on the edge of the top tier. Through all this fighting, I had no idea how high I'd climbed; now I take the time to look around me, and see an ocean of white wisps and puffs drifting across a brown landscape, suddenly registering the thin air in my lungs. It's impossible to make out anything useful through the clouds, but the fact that I'm this high up is incredible on its own.

And I'm not the only one admiring the view. After a moment, I see another Undead, who appears to be outfitted as a knight of some sort, his shielded face turned to the sky. Curious, I approach him. Yes, he is a knight, but not a standard knight - his armor is painted with a sun design, and a red plume sprouts from his helmet.

"Excuse me," I say.

He turns to me. "Ah, hello!" he says brightly. "You don't look Hollow, far from it! I am Solaire of Astora, an adherent of the Lord of Sunlight. Now that I am Undead, I have come to this great land, the birthplace of Lord Gwyn, to seek my very own sun!" I blink, unsure what to make of this statement. "Do you find that strange?" he asks me; before I can politely deny it, he says, "Well, you should! No need to hide your reaction. I get that look all the time!" He chuckles good-naturedly.

I can't help but smile back - it's always nice to see someone own their quirks. "I am Deimos, also formerly of Astora," I introduce myself, even as he turns back to the sky.

He looks at me again. "Oh, ah-hah! So, I didn't scare you?" he comments, not quite teasingly. "I have a proposition, if you have a moment."

For a second, I hesitate, but then I decide that I can't afford to alienate someone who isn't already trying to kill me. "Sure," I reply.

"The way I see it, our fates are intertwined," he says grandiosely. "In a land brimming with Hollows, could that really be mere coincidence?" Despite his flowery words, I recognize in them the very sentiment I just had. "So, what do you say?" he asks. "Why not help one another on this lonely journey?"

This time I don't think twice. "Absolutely," I tell him.

"This pleases me greatly," he informs me. "Well then, take this." He holds out an item in one hand.

I take it. It's a White Sign Soapstone.

"We are amidst strange beings, in a strange land," he explains. "The flow of time itself is convoluted; with heroes centuries old phasing in and out. The very fabric wavers, and relations shift and obscure. There's no telling how much longer your world and mine will remain in contact. But, use this, to summon one another as spirits, cross the gaps between the worlds, and engage in jolly co-operation! Of course, we are not the only ones engaged in this. But I am a warrior of the sun! Spot my summon signature easily by its brilliant aura. If you miss it, you must be blind!" He laughs at his joke.

Barely, I manage a chuckle, and tuck the tool away. I'm glad to have an ally, but I don't intend to actively be an ally to anyone else - I must pursue the path she took, to see what went wrong and how to fix it. "Thank you," is all I can say.

When I turn to go, he doesn't move. Confused, I glance back at him. "Hello?"

"Oh, hello there," he says, glancing at me. "I will stay behind, to gaze at the sun." He turns back and sighs longingly. "The sun is a wondrous body. Like a magnificent father! If only I could be so grossly incandescent!"

This, I decide, is my cue to leave; I turn around and climb the stairs back to the archway. The key I purchased turns out not to work on the wooden door, which leaves me with only the bothersomely open bridge. There are soldiers scattered along it, a couple with crossbows; I lift my shield and start trotting along towards them.

I'm just about to engage with the first soldier when huge shadow blocks the sun. A moment later, a sea of fire washes over the entire bridge, knocking me to the ground; I'm lucky to not be completely incinerated. Without pausing to look, I turn and run back to safety to regroup; the souls of the Hollows flow into me as I run, and I know that they're all dead. After I sprint around a corner, I catch my breath and take a swig from my Estus Flask; then, I peer back around to see what awaits me.

Perched over the archway across the bridge is the enormous red drake I saw earlier; it's just standing there, hunched over, like a tremendous, monstrous bird, as though it's waiting for me to come back. It's far away - trying to approach it now is pointless, it can easily obliterate me before I even reach it. But there's nowhere else I can go! Confused, I trek all the way back to the bonfire, to seek my love's advice.


	5. Chapter 4

Back at the bonfire, I sit and rest. I take a moment to strengthen myself with the souls I've gathered, then peer into the fire, one hand clutching my pendant, searching for a sign. It comes readily.

She, too, was stymied by the drake at first. For a long time, she actually thought it was untouchable. But she discovered, after much trial and error, that she didn't have to go through the doorway the drake guards - there's a staircase leading down below the bridge, about halfway along its length. With enough speed, she was able to sprint to it and climb down the stairs before the drake's fire annihilated her.

Regaining awareness of myself, I sigh. Once again with the needing to be faster than I am in this armor. Oh well; the chain link armor worked once, it might work again - but this will be the _last_ time. So I stand, and fight my way through all the Hollows, back to the bridge.

At the bridge, I change into my chain link armor, then run to the staircase. Reaching it easily, I start to go down, but the drake hasn't even moved. The thing is, I want it to breathe fire over the bridge - I want the souls of the Hollows along it - but it doesn't seem to have even noticed me. Confused, I walk back up and past the staircase, towards it; she made it seem like I would have less than a second to dodge the fire, but the drake stays at its perch. I inch closer, and closer, and closer…for a moment, I wonder if I might be able to simply walk through the doorway it guards. Then it rears back its head, fire dripping from its jaws, and I don't even have time to turn and run back to the stairs before an ocean of flames obliterates everything on the bridge, including me.

Just like that, I'm back at the bonfire again. A spare Humanity of mine can restore my condition, but I'm annoyed at the drake. Maybe this time I'll just wear my real armor, and still have enough time…I'm going to try it. But first, of course, I have to make my way back up there, through all the Hollows. On the way, I _do_ notice that my strength has risen with the souls I've put into myself - if I time a strike just right, I can kill a Hollow soldier in one blow without parrying. It makes the trip go by a bit faster, and a bit more easily.

When I get there again, I run without changing my armor. Even like this, the drake doesn't move, doesn't acknowledge me. Down the stairs, I wait for the Hollow soldiers to come chasing me down the stairs, figuring I can defeat them myself. Two with spears and shields make their way to me carefully, then attack me from both sides so that even my ring can't protect me from dying; I never even get a chance to recover the humanities and souls I left behind when the drake killed me.

And again, I'm back at the bonfire. This time, I have no Humanities left, so I'll have to go out Hollowed. Hating this, I pray that one of them gives me a humanity before I get to the drake - I'll run back to the bonfire to heal, then go out again, if they do; I cannot bear being Hollow.

None of them do. Without a single scrap of humanity with which to restore my Hollowed body, I reach the bridge again. Resignedly, I carry on; I try to tempt the drake into burning the bridge again, without getting too close, but to no avail. After a little while, I give up and descend the stairs to reclaim the power I lost when the Hollows killed me. This time, I don't let them follow me; I just walk through a doorway to a wooden ledge with a raised ladder, kick the ladder so that it unfolds all the way along the wall, and descend…right back to the bonfire again.

Now I have a shortcut. But I'm feeling defeated - Hollow, as I am. I decide to go back down to the fire kept by the Fire Keeper; maybe someone there can help me. Who knows? Maybe one of the Hollows on the way down will give me enough humanity to restore myself.

Naturally, none of them do, and I return to the main bonfire thoroughly Hollow. Perhaps my acquaintance might help me. Hardly daring to be hopeful, I put away my sword and shield, remove my helm - even though I know it only exposes my Hollowed face - and approach him.

"Oh, your face!" he exclaims at the sight of me. "You're practically Hollow! But who knows? Going Hollow could solve quite a bit." He chuckles.

"No," I say, "it wouldn't. Can you help me? How do I restore my humanity? I'm out of sprites…"

"Hm, what? Restoring your humanity?" he repeats. "Well, there are a few ways to go about it…" My hopes rise. "Collect it bit by bit from corpses, or you can butter up a cleric, and get yourself summoned. And the quickest way, although I'd never do it, is to kill a healthy Undead, and pillage its humanity. Coveting thy neighbor is only human, after all!" He chuckles again.

At this, I sag in defeat. There's no way I'm going to find a cleric to summon me, however that might help me, and I've been trying and failing to collect it from corpses, though I used to succeed so well without even trying at all. And though I personally have little qualms about killing another for my own benefit, I know my love would be furious with me if I killed an innocent person just to fix my appearance, and even now that she's gone, that knowledge stays my hand. Our old argument flares up in my head - I can almost hear exactly what she'd say, even without my connection to her through my pendant (in truth, she's silent at the moment): She would say it doesn't matter what I look like, that I have the same heart and that's all that matters, while another person's life is truly precious. My final decision is that, if even this crestfallen Undead would never pillage another's humanity, why should I stoop to such levels? No…I'm above that.

He casts me a leery gaze. "What are you looking at?" he asks suspiciously. "Don't try anything clever. You might regret it."

I shake my head. "I won't," I tell him. "Thank you for your advice."

With that, I turn to the bonfire, figuring I might as well rest, and strengthen myself a bit more with souls I've gathered. Then I stand again, and go back the way I came, empty-handed; I pray to gather humanity from some foes on the way back, but of course, I have no such luck. With nothing left for me, I climb the ladder I released, then take the doorway that leads out to the underside of the bridge, where the drake can't reach me.

It's a bit trickier to navigate the underside of the bridge, and there are two Hollows down here, waiting for…who knows what. One is pacing back and forth along a narrow ledge, another is hiding in one of the more open spaces; I walk along a ledge before either of them, carefully time myself, and throw a firebomb at the one on the ledge up ahead - I don't want to fight hand-to-hand in such close quarters. It goes up in flames, and its corpse drops over the edge, leaving me to fight one-on-one with the other Hollow. This one costs me a couple of blows to parry and riposte, which I do in the hope of getting extra souls, but even when I succeed, it doesn't work this time; I make a mental note of this, then thoroughly search this bridge underside before carrying on, finding nothing.

Another narrow ledge, perpendicular to the first, leads to a doorway to a dark, dank room reminiscent of my cell in the Asylum, with three large undead rats scuttling around, fur and flesh peeling from their bones here and their on their massive bodies. They charge me, and before I can even swing my sword a couple of times, I've been poisoned. After I kill the rats, I stand still, feeling my life drain away - but I can also feel the poison making its way through my system, and I know that with enough Estus, my Undead body will cleanse itself. So I wait, in the musty room, surrounded by half-rotten giant rat corpses, taking a drink from my Estus Flask every so often, listening to the grumbles and growls of the drake overhead. Six drinks from my Estus Flask are what it takes to wait out the poison, and when it's done, I take a seventh just in case; that leaves me with three to get me through whatever awaits me up ahead, but I have to carry on, as she would.

Through the murky room is a ladder, which I climb. Some narrow stairs to my left lead up what seems to be another tower, but somehow I know my main objective isn't that way, and I leave it to be investigated some other time. Instead, I walk through the doorway in front of me, and find myself on a wide, slightly spiral staircase. Downward leads to a heavy wooden gate that seems to separate this passage from the room guarded from the outside by the drake, meaning I've circumvented it; up the stairs leads to a Hollow waiting for me. Parrying and riposting it still gets me no bonus souls; shrugging it off, I continue to the top of the stairs to a passage through a thick stone wall. On the other side is a room with staircases spanning it, fires burning here and there, a couple of Hollow soldiers, some Hollows shooting crossbows at me from atop a rampart, and…a Fang Boar.

Seeing the hulking metal beast actually gives me pause, so that I almost don't see the Hollow running straight for me; it gets one strike on me, and then we face off, me eventually taking it down, though it puts up a significant fight - the Hollows around here are getting stronger. While I'm at it, I lure the other Hollow soldier in the area out and fight it, and as I do so, I catch sight of some stairs in an alcove. Given time to think about it, after the second Hollow falls, I see the Fang Boar is staring me down, so I dart across to the stairs and run up them.

The sound of crossbow bolts clinking against stone greets me as I crest the staircase. A Hollow with a spear also waits; their forces combined hit me hard, and I end up drinking the last of my Estus, leaving me helpless. Eventually I take down the spear-wielding Hollow, but that leaves me with two crossbow-shooters; I take a breath, then charge out to face them, shield raised. It's a close one, but I end up defeating both of them, at a great cost. Another Hollow, whom I didn't notice before, darts under the parapet I'm fighting on, headed for the stairs so it can come up to help my foes; I manage to kill both crossbow-wielders with a bit of time to spare for this extra enemy, but by the time I'm done with the late assistant, I'm so injured that it's a wonder my ring hasn't activated. And that still, of course, leaves me with the Fang Boar.

Luckily, a nearby corpse was carrying four Alluring Skulls, which I hope I can use to lure the Fang Boar closer so I can plunge at it as I did with the demons - up here, it can't reach me. Firebombs, black firebombs, throwing knives, and Alluring Skulls are all in my arsenal right now - I can use these to kill the Fang Boar without putting myself in danger, I know I can. She did.

Taking aim, I throw a black firebomb at it. It turns, barely grazed, but it doesn't come towards me. I move, meaning to throw another, but I trip and swing my sword, and fall off the rampart; the Fang Boar runs me over, and I die instantly. Not really an unexpected outcome.

Now, though, I know what I need. I'm going to gather some souls, then buy a bunch of firebombs from the trinket seller - I noticed he had those in his wares. Being back at the bonfire, my love tells me through the fire how she killed the Fang Boar by buying out the firebombs and just using them all until it fell; I will do the same. So I'll go out and start killing Hollows again, to gather up souls to trade for firebombs. Maybe, if my luck changes, I'll get a bit of humanity from one of them, too.

For now, though, I'm tired and discouraged, and here at the fire, my beloved's spirit almost touches me. Having done enough, I lie down to rest again.


	6. Chapter 5

Feeling her beside me, I wake again - these moments as I wake up are heavenly. As before, the feeling fades, retreating into the fire, and I stand. Souls. Firebombs. I need to collect them.

First, I fight through the few Hollows between me and the trinket stand so I can check the price. One of the Hollows drops another shard of titanite, which I tuck away carefully; I'm still not sure how to use it yet, though - I don't want to waste it on weapons and armor that I'll later discard.

At the trinket stand, the Undead greets me with, "Oh, there you are. Still keeping your marbles all together? Then, go ahead, don't be a nitwit. Never hurts to splurge when your days are numbered!" which I'm starting to think might be his motto. He gives his creepy giggle again, and I check the price of the firebombs: 50 souls each. I've already gathered 502 on my way over here, and I spend them now so that I don't seem rude by bothering him and not buying anything.

While I do this, I notice him reaching over and petting a sword next to him in a small wooden tub every couple of seconds. It looks sharp, and I'm intrigued. "What's this?" I ask him, motioning to it.

"Ah, this one?" he says, and he smiles. "Ain't she lovely? Her name is Yulia. She's plumb in love with me. You'd never leave my side, now would you, Yulia?" he asks the weapon fondly.

"Er…" This is slightly unnerving, but great warriors have been known to name their weapons - if less personally - and I myself have found companionship in a possession or two in the past. "Is, ah, she for sale?" I ask the merchant.

"Ah, you can forget it. I'm all that she needs," he tells me. "Careful, she'll bite your little fingers off! Be kind, Yulia, be kind!" he chides the sword, and he giggles his creepy giggle.

That is quite enough for me, and I bid farewell.

"Thank you kindly," he says, chuckling again. Thinking things over, I walk away, and I deciding not to hold the matter against him - he can provide me with things I need, and that's enough to return to him in the future but not kill him for that sword and his humanity, what little he might have left.

Thus prepared, I head back up. At first, I intend to go hunting Hollows for more souls, but after a minute, I decide to rest at the bonfire again, then head back up the ladder to see if I can salvage anything from where I died - I won't fight the Fang Boar, but those Hollows had a not-insignificant amount of souls to pillage. Under the bridge, with the drake's menacing growls coming from above, I face off with the two Hollows again. As before, I try to use a firebomb to take down the one on the small ledge, but somehow I always end up hitting its shield, and I waste three on it. What's more, I have its attention now, and I've caught the attention of the other as well, so I have to retreat and try to fight them both at once. It's a close match, but I eventually cut them down and kick their corpses over the edge. In all, the incident costs me two drinks from my Estus Flask - not bad, all things considered.

Remembering the undead rats waiting for me, I try to be a bit more careful ahead; I stay in the doorway so they come at me one at a time. The first one I block and hit, and cut down without incident; the second gets a good bite on me but not enough to thoroughly poison me; and the third doesn't even come out at me, so I go in, and I cut it down before it does anything. When the third undead rat falls, I check its corpse, and find…a Humanity sprite.

I'm dumbstruck. Why would a _rat_ be carrying a Humanity? I decide not to question it, and I absorb the sprite so I can feel it burning in my chest. This is probably a mistake, but I'm going to go ahead, _carefully_ \- I get a Homeward Bone ready to use the moment I'm in danger, so I can retreat and revive myself. I'll even end up getting more souls this way.

At the top of the stairs past the ladder, I kill a Hollow without incident, then face off with another; I parry it, but fail to riposte, and it jumps back and heals itself from the cuts I did manage to land with its own Estus Flask. After that, I kill it without much trouble, but the fact that Hollows are using Estus Flasks bothers me a bit; I use another drink from my own before slowly inching forward, careful not to alert the Fang Boar.

Up the stairs, the combination of single spear-bearing Hollow and pair of crossbow-wielding Hollows is just as formidable as before. Eventually, I defeat the first Hollow and head for the two with crossbows; when I get there, I notice that the patch of blood from when I died is up here, not below - I remember that time is plastic here in Lordran, and I'm grateful. As I fight one of the crossbow Hollows, though, I knock it off the parapet just before it dies, and I'm so focused on swinging at it that I fall off after it - I still manage to kill it, but I've caught the Fang Boar's attention, and it charges. Somehow, I manage to dodge past the metal beast once, and I fall down a hidden staircase; now I'm too focused on getting back up, and when I climb the secret stairs, the Fang Boar charges me and tosses me up in the air with its horns, and I die, leaving my humanity behind…I knew I shouldn't have wasted it.

With no other option, I go back up to try again. Under the bridge, I waste another three firebombs on the same Hollow, but this time I manage to kill it with the third one; I then go to fight the other Hollow, and I try to parry it so I can get more souls from it, but I fail, and when I go to grab my Estus Flask, I grab a firebomb instead by mistake, and I throw it reflexively before I have time to think. The Hollow dies, and I get the normal amount of souls - though, now that I think about it, I would have anyway.

Annoyed, I go on to the undead rats. None of them drop a Humanity this time, so I keep going empty-handed. One of the Hollows ahead tries to use an Estus Flask during our fight, but this time I cut it down before it gets the chance. It also gives me a longsword, but the weapon is less powerful than my broadsword and otherwise identical. Up top, I stop trying to parry, and simply swing when the Hollow is knocked off-balance by hitting my shield; it uses an Estus Flask during the fight, but I cut it down much more effectively than I have in the past.

Then, I move on to the two Hollows with crossbows. One of them drops just as I'm about to kill it, like last time, but I don't go after it this time. Instead, I fight off the other, and then the one that had been waiting below that comes up behind me, my ring saving me at one point. The other Hollow with the crossbow then starts shooting at me from down below, within the range of the Fang Boar; I try to go down the stairs after it, but the Fang Boar comes for me, and I barely manage to avoid being mauled as I run back to the top of the stairs. While I stand at the top, trying to figure out what to do, the remaining Hollow eventually gives up on trying to shoot me and finally comes running after me; I cut it down, take my seventh swig of Estus. This leaves me with a predicament; presumably, I don't have enough throwable weapons to kill the Fang Boar, and the splotch of blood from where I died last time - with its humanity point - is down within the Fang Boar's reach.

Cautiously, I get a Homeward Bone ready to use, then walk back onto the parapet. That hidden staircase I found before comes to mind; maybe, if I can jump into it before the Fang Boar kills me, I can find a moment's peace to use the Homeward Bone. One last breath to steady myself, a touch of my pendant for luck, and I drop down. By some miracle, the Fang Boar doesn't even notice me as I reclaim my lost power and jump down the hidden staircase, and I use the Homeward Bone to return to the bonfire near the trinket stand. When I get there, I smile; she's still watching over me.

Before I go, I revive myself with the humanity I just reclaimed, finally feeling alive again. Then I return to the trinket stand, fighting through the few Hollows on the way. By the time I get there, I have just enough souls for forty firebombs; the merchant greets me with his motto, and I buy the lot. While I'm here, I open my mouth to ask if he knows anything about Fang Boars, and he immediately cuts me off by saying "Now, don't squander your time chatting! You need to look over my wares!"

"I have," I point out, and I go to leave. He thanks me very much for my business and encourages me to come back soon, and I return to the bonfire.

47 firebombs are my stock now. _Is this enough?_ I ask my love. But her memories are fading, and she can't say for sure; I decide I have nothing else to do, and I climb back up to try it. Now that I'm not bothering with parrying anymore, none of the Hollows put up a significant fight - nor do the rats - and one of the Hollows even gives me some humanity (of course).

Finally, I'm alone with the Fang Boar again. On my way up here, I used one firebomb to kill a Hollow; between regular firebombs and black firebombs, I have exactly 50 to throw at it, plus ten throwing knives. Time to see if that will be enough. Just thirteen firebombs later, the Fang Boar dies, and I can hardly believe it; I don't get anything to show for it but a bunch of souls, but I don't care, I can finally proceed without worrying about the beast, though apparently I shouldn't have ever worried in the first place. I'm starting to wonder if there's really anything worth truly fearing - it's my own caution that has gotten me killed most often.

There's a wooden gate behind where the Fang Boar was waiting, past the rampart, so I only have one option of where to go next. Down that hidden staircase, I come to a complex full of ragged Hollows with broken swords; even in pairs, they aren't a threat. At the back of the complex, I find a corpse that is holding a mysterious key, which I of course take. The complex is empty of Hollows now, and I look around for some way to proceed; moments later, I find a ladder, and I climb it. At the top are two more ragged Hollows, and another ladder; at the top of that is a floor that is completely abandoned. Set into one of the walls is a narrow passage that leads to a wall of white light; I traverse it, and it fades away behind me, leaving me on a rampart overlooking the parapet from which I threw the firebombs at the Fang Boar. Across this is a passage, stairs to my left, a balcony to my right; I explore the balcony, and at the far end, I can see a knight in a tattered cape, almost certainly Hollow and dangerous. For a moment, I deliberate, but only a moment - I decide to take the risk. We exchange a few blows, and it kills me; so much for not needing to worry about my foes.

Back at the bonfire again. But this time, I know at least the Fang Boar is gone for good, and I also know to avoid that Hollow knight for the time being; I climb back up and try to return to where I was, but I get careless at one point, and the two Hollows with crossbows kill me. How many times is this now? I've now lost everything I gained from defeating the Fang Boar, apart from its presence being gone. On the next attempt, I manage to actually salvage a crossbow from one of the two Hollows that I'm really starting to hate, and some battered armor from the other; apart from that, nothing of significance happens. That just makes the fact that I lost a humanity and all the souls I got from the Fang Boar even more frustrating.

Finally, I take the stairs I passed up before. At the top, a Hollow is lying in wait for me down a balcony to my left, but I see it before it sees me and kill it easily. The only other thing up here is a narrow passageway that leads to another staircase, this one leading down; at the bottom is another balcony like the one that strong knight was on. Peering around the corners, I see another such knight to my left, and a spear-bearing Hollow to my right, already strafing me; I lure the latter into the narrow passage, and we both get a few good hits on each other before I kill it, my ring saving me. Now it's just me and the strong knight; I have nowhere else to go, so I face it. It's nimble, and wields its sword and shield expertly, but I actually manage to kill it without too much difficulty.

Down the balcony, past where the strong knight was waiting, is a wooden bridge I don't trust the look of, and to the left, another narrow passageway of stairs leading a short ways down. When I take the stairs, I find myself in the space beyond the wooden gate that was behind the Fang Boar; there's a single Hollow down the sweeping staircase to the gate, probably guarding it, but I can see a lever that will most likely open it, giving me a shortcut back here in the future. I kill the Hollow and pull the lever, and sure enough, the gate opens; I also find a corpse lying at the bottom of the stairs that is holding a key, the nature of which I can't quite determine. Back up the wide staircase and to the left, I find a corpse holding a halberd; I examine it, thinking I might be faced with a choice, but I find that overall, it's still inferior to my broadsword - even the Morning Star is a more effective weapon. So I keep with my sword.

Finally able to take a moment to breathe, I look up, examining the building I've reached; it's tall and ornate, and looks rather like a church. At a guess, I'd say the Bell of Awakening is at the top. It takes a lot of effort for me to not think "that was easy" - sure, the journey here wasn't without its difficulties, but with this Bell of Awakening being such a big deal, it seems like the journey to it should have been longer.

After I'm done musing, I walk past the entrance without entering - intending instead to go back and investigate the wooden bridge, maybe even the strong knight that killed me before - when a strong knight comes running out of the building after me. When I kill it without getting a scratch, I decide I'm definitely going to go back to the one that killed me before and try again; when I reach it and engage it in combat again, however, I notice that its shield and sword are different from the others, and start to wonder if I've made a mistake. But I'm careful, and though it's clever, I kill it without too much trouble this time. Beyond it, on the top of a castle tower, is a corpse from which I collect a shield with an appearance befitting a true knight. However, when I check it against the one I'm using, I discover that it's actually slightly inferior, so I put it away and keep my original one. Come to think of it, this sword and shield have served me remarkably well, even when I've picked up several alternatives to each, and I'm starting to think that maybe these _are_ the weapons I'll be using most in my travels. That means they're worth reinforcing the next time I see that smith.

Most other routes exhausted, I go back to the wooden bridge I don't wholly trust. It doesn't collapse under me, and leads to another open area just outside the church-like building, where two Hollows with swords and one with a crossbow await me. The two with swords work together and almost down me, my ring saving me; both use their own Estus Flasks at points, but I kill them before too long. After that, the one with a crossbow doesn't even put up a fight before I cut it down. One of them also gives me a humanity, which I resolve to use the next chance I get.

Now I have nowhere to go but inside the church…except, I notice a narrow stone bridge leading far in the opposite direction. Ultimately, I decide to look that way first - again, this climb feels like it was too easy, relatively speaking. When I cross the bridge and enter the building it leads to, the first thing I notice is the sound of metal banging on metal rhythmically. It sounds like smithing, actually, and I begin to wonder…

Inside, the place is trashed, but abandoned. Down a wooden staircase, I come to a floor at the center of which is a bonfire, which I light and sit down at gratefully, using my humanity to revive my body and the souls I've gathered on my way here to strengthen myself. That clanging metal sound is still coming from below me, but across from the steps that led me to the bonfire, I see another stone bridge out of this building, this one leading to an enormous structure with a huge metal gate that I can clearly make out from here; I decide to check across the bridge first.

As I suspected, this is a dead end. It's not completely empty, though - I do find another Undead who doesn't attack me. He's wearing a helmet that looks like an onion, and his armor is shaped similarly, making him look very flabby; I actually recognize the style, if I can't recall from where. To be polite, I put away my sword and shield and remove my helm, and approach him.

"Hmm," he mumbles. "Hrmmmmm…"

"Hello?" I ask.

"Mmm…Mmm…" he continues muttering. "Mmm…Oh-hoh!" he exclaims, apparently suddenly noticing my presence. "Forgive me. I was absorbed in thought. I am Siegmeyer of Catarina," he introduces himself in a grand tone. Then he slumps down again and says, "Quite honestly, I have run flat up against a wall. Or, a gate, I should say. The thing just won't budge. No matter how long I wait. And, oh, have I waited! So, here I sit, in quite a pickle. Weighing my options, so to speak!" He laughs good-naturedly.

Catarina, that was it. Yes, knights from that land wear the ridiculous-looking armor that makes it harder to hit them solidly. I wonder if all Catarinans are as useless as this one - does he really think the gate will open by itself if he just waits for it to do so?

"Have you tried _doing_ something to open it?" I ask him, as inoffensively as possible.

But he seems to have already forgotten I'm here. "Still closed," he mumbles. "Still closed…mmm…"

Shaking my head, I walk away, back to the bonfire. Now, I finally take the other set of stairs, and sure enough, at the bottom is a grizzled, muscular smith, sitting on a stump and beating a sword out on an anvil, surrounded by weapons and armor and smithing tools. His hair and beard are white and long, but not so much so as to get in the way of his craft; his torso is bare, his skin tanned. Still being presentable, I approach him.

"Hello," I greet him.

"Well, you must be a new arrival," he says, barely pausing in his smithing to look up and speak to me. "I'm Andre of Astora. If you require smithing, speak to me."

"Let's see what you offer," I respond.

He can reinforce my armor, broadsword, and shield, but with one titanite shard each, and 200 souls each as well. During my journey so far, I've only gathered enough of both resources for one upgrade, so I reinforce my broadsword, and also have him repair my shield in the meantime.

Then I take a look at what he's selling, and find that he actually sells shards of titanite. I don't have nearly enough souls for one, though - to purchase and then use one shard would cost 1000 souls in total. Swords, shields, a spear or two, and arrows and bolts are on sale as well, interestingly enough. Among his more expensive wares are toolboxes meant to enforce or repair weapons or armor on the go that I can use myself, but of course I can't afford them. His most precious item of all, though, is an interesting crest that I feel will be important to have at some point - the Crest of Artorias, who was one of the four great knights of Lord Gwyn.

"You seem to be very familiar with weapons," I comment, hoping to learn from him.

Still beating out his sword, he nods slightly. "Most weapons and armor are mighty sturdy indeed," he says. "But every hunk of metal has its breaking point. If you notice durability running low, it's time to repair. You can ask a blacksmith like meself, or do it on your own with a grindstone." He smiles slightly. "The nice thing about weapons…they never betray you. So pay them a little respect, eh?"

I nod in agreement - that is a valuable thing in a world of Undead. "What about strengthening them?" I ask. "I've met one other smith here in Lordran, and both of you say you can reinforce weapons with this titanite material - you just reinforced my sword."

His smile widens at this. "There are two types of weapon reinforcing," he explains to me. "There's reinforcement, and there's ascension. Reinforcement is simple. It strengthens the weapon and nothing more. A simple task for any blacksmith. Hell, you could even do it yourself with a smithbox. But ascension is a finer art. It alters a weapon properties. Ascension is the territory of we blacksmiths; a smithbox just won't do the trick. Start out with reinforcement. When that loses its charm you can consider ascension." He pauses, then adds, "As you've noticed, this land is flush with the mad and wicked. You won't make it through the night without employing my services." With a hearty chuckle, he resumes forging.

He seems so focused on his work, but I'm still curious. "What about armor?" I press him. "Can that be reinforced and ascended, too?"

"You can forge armor just like you do weapons," he replies. "Forging armor is even easier than forging weapons. Whether you forge armor or weapons first? Well, that's up to you. But nobody wants to see you go Hollow. So, whatever you do, you'd better do it well." Another hearty chuckle ends this statement. I've noticed people here seem to do that often, and though his tone isn't malevolent, it's starting to bother me.

Still hoping to learn more, I decide to change the subject. "What is this place, anyway?" I ask him.

"This is the old church," he answers. "It was abandoned in favor of that church you passed through." Or went around. "There are paths leading from here to two forbidden planes: Sen's Fortress, and Darkroot Garden. They attract all sorts of lunatics, no-one as cultured as yourself. It's fine to be Undead, but keep a level head, eh?" He laughs again and resumes forging.

I already have an idea of what lies inside the church, but these two "forbidden places" only spark my curiosity further. "What is Sen's Fortress?" I ask. "That enormous building outside?"

"Sen's Fortress is an old proving ground built by the ancient gods," Andre tells me. "It is the only route to the great Anor Londo. Of course, most fools can't even find their way into that fortified deathtrap. But they won't stop trying! Take that bumbling Sir Onion…" He laughs again, and this time his chuckle seems warranted - he's probably referring to Siegmeyer and his apparent conviction that simply waiting will cause the gate to open, and I even laugh a little bit myself.

We both sober, and then I ask, "And Darkroot Garden?"

Andre frowns. "I know little of the Darkroot Garden," he says. "Although, I've heard rumors of a divine blacksmith who resides there. Those who get stumped in the Catacombs seek him for divine weapons." I wait for a chuckle, but this time he doesn't make one; I can't tell if it's because the matter is serious or because he's trying to focus on his work. Either way, I know it's time for me to go.

"Thank you," I tell him.

He looks up at me. "Don't get yourself killed," he says. "Neither of us want to see you go Hollow." Then he continues his smithing, and I leave him be.

When, I turn around, I notice another narrow passageway of stairs leading down, an architectural feature that's starting to seem far too common. Curious, I walk down the steps to take a look, and am met with the sight of an enormous, headless monster, crouched in a huge room. The moment I see it, it somehow senses me, and it raises its weapon - a long pole with a sort of circular claw at the end - which begins charging up with lightning; I turn around and run away without waiting to see what it does next, returning to the new bonfire.

With all other routes exhausted, I know I'm to go into the church I passed and climb it to ring the first Bell of Awakening. I'd be very surprised if it isn't guarded by powerful monsters, especially considering how relatively short the climb was, and I sit at the fire to take comfort in my love's presence before I resume the journey.


	7. Chapter 6

It is time.

When I've basked in her presence for long enough, I stand. She tries to tell me, _begs_ to tell me, what lies in store for me, but I refuse her - I am grateful for her help, but this will be _my_ journey. All she manages to inform me before I shut her out is that she was able to conquer whatever challenge awaits me on her first try. This much, I'm glad to know - it puts pressure on me, to prove I'm at least as strong and worthy as she was.

I take out my sword and shield, replace my helm, and climb the stairs out of the old ruined church. The narrow stone bridge lined with pillars back to the great Undead Parish is eventless, and the three Hollows who gave me no trouble the first time don't hinder me all that much, either - though I do end up needing to take one swig from my Estus Flask before entering the side door. Slowly, cautiously, I climb the stone steps into the entryway of the building, my shield raised.

Inside, the place looks quite peaceful and whole compared to what I've seen thus far - apart from some shattered wooden pews, there appears to be no rubble or disrepair. Statues holding torches line the walls; enormous, elegant pillars stand throughout the place; an expansive, soaring ceiling stretches above; and when I peer around the right-hand corner, I see some sort of altar…guarded by a figure with an enormous black shield.

Seeing this, I hesitate. Do I charge in, or see what's in the front entrance? There are other Hollows in here somewhere, I know…and the clean, open space makes me uneasy. Finally, I decide on going back to the front. Just in case.

Neither of the other Hollows I come across on the way back pose any threat to me, and one even drops another shard of titanite, which I may or may not give to Andre…I'd rather just move forward, now that I've prepared myself, but I don't want to be under-prepared. In any case, I needn't revive my foes with the bonfire if I return to his smithery; I'll see what's inside from this door, then return to him quickly, then come back here again.

As I approach the front entrance, a Hollow knight comes charging out at me, same as before; I cut it down with ease. Another one is visible inside before I even cross the threshold, and I approach cautiously, my shield raised, as I pass through two metal doors that were already open for some reason. A sound to my left alerts me soon after - another knight must have been hiding around the corner, and one thrust from its sword just barely falls short of my shield arm. Wary of it, I jog back outside; I notice it has a small shield, like the slightly stronger knight that gave me trouble before. Also like the other, it is nimble, and clever in its swordplay; I take a drink of Estus when it does, and two other times during the fight - it's a close call, and when I'm done, I have one swallow of Estus left, and a few bruises that weren't healed, _and_ there is still another knight inside. Reviewing the situation, I decide to charge in.

The knight just inside gives me no trouble at all, never even touches me. After it falls, I look back into the main hall of the building; from this angle, I can more clearly see the altar, flanked by torches and guarded by a large black knight. This black knight is not the same as the one that guarded the blue tearstone ring - again, it carries a huge shield, and its weapon appears to be a mace, not a sword. With one portion of Estus left, I cautiously proceed.

A crystalline sound, followed by a stab of pain in the back of my neck, catches me unawares - someone is casting spells at me from above. This complicates things drastically; I've not yet dealt in any sort of magical battle, and my armor is focused on protecting me from the physical. Is it possible to lure the black knight out from the range in which the spellcaster appears to have a clear shot, I wonder? It's a risk, but I jog in to try it.

Magic hits me from behind around the same moment the black knight becomes alerted to my presence; I immediately turn and sprint out the side door, and the creature follows me. Once outside, I take my last drink of Estus, and I know I will have to be careful during this fight, as the knight does indeed follow me.

The black beast is very powerful, but compared to it, I'm quite fast and nimble - the weight of its weapons and armor makes it slow and clunky, far more so than me. Part of me regrets not infusing my sword with lightning from the golden pine resin, but most of the time, it's not difficult to lure the beast into making a long, powerful swing into the ground with its mace that leaves me time to slash at it once and back out of its way. Sometimes, it tries to hit me with its shield; I don't trust this to give me enough time to return the attack, so I stay back, my own shield up. There is one time, when I'm dodging around it, that its powerful mace manages to hit me, and my shield takes nearly all of the blow.

Twice during the battle, the black knight drinks from an Estus Flask - the second time, I manage to get in and slash at it once while it's recovering, and am then careful to stay too close for it to think it has time to try that again. Both times, after drinking Estus, the hulking creature tries different moves with its mace, but before long returns to simply swinging into the ground. At one point, it tricks me, by swinging at the ground twice in quick succession, the second one hitting me for my not expecting it. Other than that, it gains no ground on me. When I defeat it, it leaves me with only a single shard of titanite, but with my Estus gone, and many souls collected, it's time for me to quickly return to the old church anyway. After quickly recovering at the bonfire, I put away my sword and shield and remove my helm, and return to Andre.

"Well, hello again," he says upon seeing me. "You seem to be doing alright. Need anything forged?"

"Yes," I reply; "please, another upgrade to my sword, and…one to my shield, and one to my main armor."

He makes these adjustments easily, and I bid him farewell.

"Don't get yourself killed," he warns me, like last time. "Neither of us want to see you go Hollow."

I nod my thanks and head back to the great chapel, re-equipping myself.

Returning to the three Hollows outside the side entrance to the chapel, I notice a significant increase in the strength of my sword, and am glad I took the time to reinforce it again. Inside, the black knight is gone, though whoever is casting magic at me from above is not; still, I search the altar, and find a corpse laying upon it that contains a strange soulmass. When I examine it closely, I find it burns and crackles with pure humanity…it is that of a Fire Keeper. Even with it in my hand, I can almost feel it wanting to merge into my Estus Flask, but I cannot combine the two; I decide to hold onto it, and see if perhaps someone else can help me use it properly.

The spellcaster has not fired at me in this time. I turn around and look up, and I see a figure with a staff that is probably the culprit; I can do nothing about it from here, so I jog into the other alcove where it apparently cannot reach me. Here, I find a set of two gates in the wall, one open, one closed. Cautiously, I enter the open one, which is to the right; a pressure plate in the middle of a small platform activates a lift, and I'm brought down, down, down…to the ruins of the central hub from which I came. Now I remember my acquaintance at the bonfire mentioning a lift; this must be it, and I've activated it. Convenient!

For a moment, I consider going straight back up, but decide instead to gather the extra Estus from the bonfire down here; I rest, collect the Estus, then talk to the Undead.

"Don't you ever think to forge your weapons?" he asks me, almost chidingly. "You'd better find a smithbox soon…unless you enjoy swinging about with blunt instruments!" he chuckles.

I've been forging my weapons, but a smithbox? Come to think of it, Andre was selling one of those…yes, that's something I can use to repair my weapons while on the go. But the price was too high…

"How did that silly sorcerer's apprentice end up?" he continues after a minute. "You know, the one always prattling on about Master Logan. He left for the Undead Burg, but never came back. Serves him right. If even Old Big Hat can't make it out there, what chance does he have? I hope he enjoys his new life as a Hollow."

"Who?" I ask, meaning the apprentice. But he's no longer up for chatting. I'm not sure how to ask him about the Fire Keeper soul I found…but perhaps the Fire Keeper herself can help.

She does: I offer her the soul and my Estus Flask, and without a word, she imbues my Flask with the power of the soul. The Estus within is more potent now - again, convenient! Mindful of her condition, I smile my thanks at her without saying anything, then climb my way back up to the lift and return to the chapel.

None of the Hollows that would have been revived from my use of the bonfire can even see me from here, nor I them. Some stairs lead up along the wall to my left; I decide to climb them, hoping they'll bring me to the spellcaster. At the top of the staircase, however, waits another knight, one of the nimble ones; the differences in height between us due to the stairs changes things, but ultimately works in my favor, as I cut it down without taking a single blow.

Now, I'm in a series of balconies. Following the path, I eventually come to a place where I can see the spellcaster. It does a dance in place that I can barely see from my vantage point, chanting a strange chant, then tries to shoot magic at me; the balcony is covered by wall with window-like openings, so it can't hit me. After about three spells, it seems to give up, and I cautiously proceed. As I near the entrance to the room the spellcaster is standing in, a veritable swarm of ragged Hollows with broken half-swords come at me; I take them down two and three at a time per swing of my sword, almost surprised at my own strength. There are probably things I can pillage from a couple of the corpses, but moving inside to do so will put me in the spellcaster's line of sight, so I leave the haggard corpses be and head straight for the spellcaster.

It's a strange being, covered in medallions and wielding an elaborate trident. When it tries to strike me with the trident, it's far too slow, and I slash it a few times with my sword with no consequence. After a little while, though, I accidentally knock it down from its perch; the fall does not kill it. It does its chant and dance again, then starts casting magic at me from a spot on the lower floor. I move out of its line of sight, and soon, it gives up and starts walking towards the stairs; I wait for it, pillaging a couple of broken half-swords from the pile of bodies in the meantime. When it reaches and sees me, it again tries to do its chant and dance; I take the opportunity to kill it, and with two slashes of my sword, it's dead.

With no enemies left, it's time to explore this upper level I've reached. In one room, I find a corpse hanging halfway out the window, torso-in; it bears a soulmass larger than any I've seen before, and the strength that flows into me when I crush it in my hand is exhilarating. Across the room, I find a doorway to another balcony; up some stairs is another nimble knight, who puts up just enough of a fight to cost me two swigs from my Estus Flask. The balcony the new stairs lead me to is dark, most of it lined with little wooden chairs. At the end of it, I find an enormous barrel in which a corpse bearing a Humanity sprite is trapped; I break it and take the sprite. Shortly thereafter, I find a door I cannot open, and another door next to it that probably leads to the same room, broken and falling apart; I take a drink of Estus to be safe, then swing my sword at it, and the rotted wood shatters. Sure enough, it leads to the same room, and inside it are yet more stairs; at the top of these, I find a cell containing a single knight in golden armor.

"Hello," I say to him. "I am Deimos of Astora."

He looks up at me. "Oh? Still human, are you?" he asks. "Then I am in luck. Could you help me? As you can see I am stuck, without recourse."

"I have a couple of keys here," I tell him. "I'll try them." By a stroke of luck, one of them does indeed open the door.

"Thank you, yes, sincerely," he says once he's free, and I believe he is genuinely grateful. "I am Knight Lautrec of Carim. I truly appreciate this, and I guarantee a reward, only later."

"Later?" I repeat, a half-warning in my tone.

"Yes, very sorry, your reward will have to wait," he replies. "I have just been freed. Allow me some time."

Unsure if I should be offended, I look at him for a minute. Then, under his breath, I hear him mutter, "I am free. Now I can get back to work…" and gives a chuckle that is quite unnerving, in ways unlike the chuckle of any other Undead I've met. There's something malevolent about him, I can already tell. At last, I decide it's none of my business, and to leave him be.

Having exhausted every route there is to go in this direction, I return to the spellcaster's perch. After a very tiny bit of searching, I find one last doorway, which naturally leads to still more stairs. These stairs, however, lead to a ladder; at the top of the ladder, is another ladder; and at the top of _that_ ladder, is…a doorway walled off by white light, and a glowing sign engraved into the floor.

Having never seen such a thing before, I approach the burning writing; as I draw near, an apparition of Solaire appears. This must be his summon sign, so perhaps a great foe awaits me beyond the door; I touch the sign, and from the floor, a golden, phantom version of Solaire rises. He says nothing to me, but his sword drawn and his shield is ready, so I know he's prepared to fight. With this odd ally following behind me, I traverse the white light.

Now I'm on the roof, half-rotted shingles relatively solid beneath my feet. Solaire follows me. Across the roof, I see another doorway blocked by white light set in a tower; looking back, the white light behind me has not dissipated. Something is here, and I walk forward carefully, my shield raised. At the top of the tower I approach are several gargoyle statues. One looks particularly less than stone, and I watch it warily. Sure enough, once I'm almost halfway across the roof, it moves. Its jaw opens, its wings unfold, and its enormous halberd and shield wave in front of it as it gives a tremendous screech. Then, it jumps down in front of me, and I can see that its tail is an enormous battle axe; it roars at me, so loudly I can feel the sound itself pushing me back.

With that, I begin to fight, Solaire at my side. Soon I see that it would have been very difficult to defeat this thing on my own - not only is Solaire strong, and somehow wielding lightning bolt javelins of some sort, but the gargoyle can only focus on one of us at a time; when the phantom distracts it, I'm free to take a drink from my Estus Flask and catch my breath before charging back in. All the same, the battle soon grows chaotic, with the monster's limbs and tail flailing about. At some point - I'm not sure when or how - another gargoyle joins the fight, but it falls after not too many hits…I think a third also joined in at one point, but I can't tell, it's hard to see. A blow from my sword (or Solaire's) cuts off a gargoyle's battle-axe tail somehow, and I take it and store it to possibly use myself at some point - it can be used like a regular weapon.

Finally, before I know it, all the gargoyles have fallen. A brass helm drops from one of them, but it's mostly decorative, and I keep it more as a trophy than anything; a pair of Twin Humanity sprites - a rarity, two sprites in one entity - appear where the last gargoyle fell, and I take it. The golden phantom who fought by my side gives me a Sunlight Medal, then vanishes. At last, I am alone to catch my breath, and take one last swig of Estus, leaving me with four to spare. Looking back on the fight, I notice the increased potency of the Estus in my Flask quite distinctly.

Finally, I turn once more to my destination; from here, I see that the top of it appears to be a bell tower. This, surely, is the first Bell of Awakening. Knowing the adversity is past, I put away my sword and shield, remove my helmet, and walk slowly, reverently, towards the tower. Just in case, I search the balconies around either side; only when I find nothing do I climb the stairs into it, all in a slow walk - not just out of respect for this situation, but also because I'm very high up, and the cold air is thin this far above the clouds.

It's dark inside, and a rusted ladder is my only means of ascension; at takes me all the way up, past several floors that I will never be able to investigate. When at last I reach the top, I look around the floor I've come to, and see another doorway back to the outside of the tower, where there is yet another ladder. Slowly, dizzy with anticipation and the lightheadedness from my lungs gasping at the sparse oxygen even though I'm Undead, I continue the climb, and at last, I am standing at the great Bell of Awakening. The silver instrument is ornately patterned, and just underneath it is a lever.

I pull the lever.

The sacred Bell rings, the sound echoing across the land. Nothing else happens.

This is only one of two, I recall, and I am not disheartened as I turn around and head back down, sliding down both ladders, rust flaking off under my gloves. Just before I exit, though, I find a strange figure, cloaked in black, his arms spread, his head almost covered by a golden helmet - he was not here before, I'm certain he wasn't. All the same, he does not attack me, and I approach him.

"Greetings," he says formally.

"Greetings," I reply. "I am Deimos of Astora."

"I am Oswald of Carim, the pardoner," he tells me. "Thou art a friend. For thee, a warm welcome. Cometh thou to confess?…Or to accuse? For indeed all sin is my domain."

Confess? Accuse? "I…I would atone for any sins I've committed," I say hesitantly.

He pauses a moment, then informs me, "You have not sinned."

I blink, somewhat surprised - I'm not a wicked man, but I'm far from as sweet and saintly as she was. Thinking back on my adventures, though, I can't say I see anything I might have done that could be considered sinful. Perhaps if I'd killed people who offered to help me so as to take what they have, that would be a crime? As I think this, I almost become less averse to doing that if the need arises - if Oswald can cleanse me of any misdeeds, I can sin with impunity. Or perhaps not. Maybe she knows.

Oswald sells some wares - a few rings, a spell, a talisman (this one draws on intelligence instead of faith, which would also be useful, perhaps even more so than the one Petrus offers), and a few items: Purging stones (the use of which I can't discern), Homeward Bones, and indictments with which I can report invaders, as well as a Book of the Guilty to keep track. Personally, I don't see much need for those last two - I've no intention of allowing anyone to assault me on my quest. Still, I keep these in mind.

"Is there anything else you can do?" I ask him.

"With my blessing, you may abandon your covenant, with no consequence," he tells me.

Abandon the Way of White? I…I want this. I never belonged in a covenant of holiness and faith, really. "Yes," I say. "Please."

I hold up my hands in prayer. He makes a motion, light surrounds me for a moment…and then it's done. Almost too easily.

There's nothing else for me here, so I bid him farewell.

"Thou art welcome anytime," he tells me. "It is only human to commit a sin." Then he laughs, in an almost wicked way that all but completely contradicts his nature. Still, in respect, I give him a knightly bow before turning and leaving.

Slowly, I walk all the way back to the lift that will return me to the hub, barely noticing the corpses of my fallen enemies that I kick along the way. One of two Bells of Awakening rung, and with almost no real difficulty. I'm sure the Bells themselves are not the end of the journey, but I feel very accomplished all the same, and return to the first bonfire with pride.


	8. Chapter 7

When I get there, the warmth of the fire washes over me, and with it, her. She's proud of me, but not surprised at my victory; she's also not mad at me for abandoning the Way of White - she knows me, I suppose. For a minute, I just sit with her. Then I stand to talk to my acquaintance, smiling at him as I approach.

"Why, what a surprise," he says when he sees me. "I didn't expect you to make it…Oh, somebody rang the bell…Wait. Was it you?"

Still smiling, I nod.

He sighs, this time almost wistfully. "You never give up, do you?" he comments. "I don't know how you do it." _She helps me._ "Well, don't stop now," he continues. "Only one more, but it's going to be suicide." This is followed by a chuckle.

I almost chuckle, too. It can't be all that hard.

Still, I don't want to leave just yet. For a moment, I actually debate whether or not to sit down with him for a moment, perhaps like an actual friend, though I don't know his name. After a minute, though, he smirks at me. "What's wrong?" he teases. "Get a bit of a scare out there? No problem." He pats a grassy spot beside him. "Have a seat and get comfortable. We'll both be Hollow before you know it."

That decides it for me. "No thanks," I reply, "I'll carry on." I return to the bonfire to strengthen myself with the souls I gathered from my victory, then stand again.

And that's when I realize that I have no idea where to go from here.

The path I followed to go up has been exhausted, and the ruins down below and the graveyard are both, I think, still beyond my capabilities. Those skeletons, though…They didn't seem that dangerous, and I just fought some gargoyles, so I decide to try them, and head back to the room with the pool in it.

As I enter the room, I hear a noise. It sounds almost like…snoring - the snoring of some enormous beast. By the time I wade into the deeper part of the water, the sound is gone. A bit curious, but not unnerved, I stand still for a moment, enjoying the cool water through my boots. Spontaneously, I decide to take a few dips in the water to rinse off the sweat and dirt I've gathered. Now I'm soaked, but feel much more refreshed; I run back to the bonfire to dry off. Water and fire - a perfect wash. Come to think of it, I haven't washed since I became Undead. It's almost unbelievable, how good I feel right now.

At last, I re-equip myself and head for the graveyard for real. The snoring noise doesn't happen again as I splash through the corner of the pool to the other doorway.

There are stairs here, stairs I barely noticed when fleeing the skeletons last time. Up them, I find myself in a balcony that looks down on the pool. Perched atop a crumbling wall next to the stairs is the giant raven that brought me here. All the way around the other end, I find a body I haven't pillaged; this carries only a small soulmass, but every soul counts. That done, I head back to the skeletons.

They assemble, as they did last time, both at once, and I fight them. It takes a lot of hits to bring them down, but each swing of my sword knocks everything above the pelvic bone off of them to the ground - they reassemble, of course, but I have a moment to catch a breath after each swing. One of them manages to get a hit on me, and I notice that the blades are incredibly sharp, sharper than any I've faced before - it takes my wounds a minute to scab over. Still, I'm barely injured by the time I take them both down. Satisfied with my strength, I start exploring.

Two more skeletons guard a corpse around the other side of the path down into the graveyard; one has a shield, the other only a larger sword. This time, they get a few good slashes on me, and I start to see why my love feared them - they aren't weak. I'm not afraid, though. The corpse they guarded contained a small soulmass, a bit larger than the smallest ones I've seen. Every soul counts.

Continuing forward, I find another corpse with a small-ish soulmass. Beyond that, I find two more skeletons - I'm beginning to wonder if they all happen in pairs here. Past these two, however, awaits a trio of skeletons, accompanied by one more skeleton twice as big as any human; it's at this point that I decide that this really is beyond my means, and I return to the bonfire to refill my Estus. After I get back, it occurs to me that I haven't explored around this central hub in a while; I start wandering randomly, the irony of that fact not occurring to me.

Near the Fire Keeper, I find Knight Lautrec of Carim. Glad to see he's made it back safely, regardless of whatever misgivings I may have about him, I approach him.

"Ahh, hello there," he says to me, his tone friendly once more. "I have your reward. Please, accept it." He holds something out to me.

I take the item; it's another Sunlight Medal. Curiously, I look at it closely before I stow it away, not entirely sure what these are for. It's a golden disk, emblazoned with the image of a sun and slightly warm to the touch; sunlight here in Lordran is…not _quite_ so golden, to say the least, and so it reminds me of life before Undeath slightly, but apart from that, I can discern no use for it.

"I am grateful to you, for freeing me," Lautrec says. Then he chuckles nastily, and I stiffen. He sees me still looking at the medal, and asks, "Not enough for you?" His voice has turned slimy, and my misgivings grow, especially as he says "Well, let's not be greedy now," and chuckles wickedly again.

Having no real quarrel with him, I decide to back off - I have my reward, whatever it is, and whether or not I'll regret freeing him is something I'll find out when the time comes.

That done, I return to Petrus. "Oh, hello," he says in greeting. "Miracles, I presume? Yes, I know." I take a look at what he has, only semi-interested, but can afford nothing of value. He encourages me to come again, and reminds me that the effectiveness of the teachings depend upon my faith; I nod and leave.

Now I go back to the path that led me up in the first place. The Hollows here don't bother me all that much, apart from the one throwing firebombs. I notice an underside to the bridge I normally climb; up the stairs carved into the mountain and around the back, I find a ledge that leads to a spot above it that isn't too high, and I jump down. The impact hurts my legs, but my Undead bones can't break, and I tread carefully along the narrow ledges. Against the brick wall into which the bridge leads, I find a corpse with a ring on its hand; it's a Ring of Sacrifice, a magic ring that preserves everything that would normally be lost upon the activation of the Darksign, then breaks after use. Why this would be on a corpse - instead of having saved whoever this was - doesn't matter; I put it on gladly. When I find that there's no way off this bridge, I use a Homeward Bone.

And now, I'm at a loss. I'm still flush with my victory and don't want to ask my love for guidance, but I truly have no idea where to go. At last, I decide to return to Andre - he can reinforce my equipment further, which I probably need, and maybe I'll have an idea once I get away from this spot.

I take the lift back, leaving me with only three Hollows in my path - the spellcaster in the chapel appears to be gone. When I reach the small bonfire in the old church, I realize I have enough souls to strengthen myself further. This leaves me with a choice: reinforcement of my equipment, or of myself. After deliberating, I choose myself, meaning that Andre can't help me anymore. Listening to his smithing down below, though, I remember the headless demon with lightning, and wonder if perhaps I could fight it now - I just fought a gargoyle, after all.

But first…the adrenaline from my victory is finally wearing off, and I'm getting tired. Here with the warmth of my love's spirit, I lie down to rest.


	9. Chapter 8

A new day; I rise to the sound of Andre's smithing. Ready to face the headless monster, I head downstairs, not bothering to greet Andre as I pass him. With my shield raised - however useful it might be against lightning - I creep down the passage cautiously.

I'm able to dodge the lightning once I enter the large room in which the monster lurks, but when I near the creature, it swipes at me with its staff. One blow knocks my shield out of the way, a second strikes me hard; I manage to back away before the third fatal blow and take a swig from my Estus Flask, then hide behind a piece of rubble to block its next lightning charge. The lightning is blocked, but when I run up to it, trying to dodge its staff and failing in my clunky armor, it sweeps its weapon at me and quickly injures me grievously. My blue tearstone ring activates, and for a moment, it seems I'll have time to take a drink from my Estus flask and recover, but just before I do, I'm killed.

The Ring of Sacrifice saves me from going Hollow. It's an even stranger feeling than the Darksign activating unhindered - as the fire spreads through me from the mark branded into my skin, a feeling like ice water trickles through me from the ring. The two forces negate each other, and for a moment, I can't feel anything at all; then, I'm awake at the bonfire where I was just resting, and the ring shatters on my hand.

It's clear that I'm not ready to fight that demon. My only hope is to run past it, but in this armor, I'm far too slow; so, before I return to the passageway, I swap out my heavy armor for the chain-link armor that helped me against the tauros demon. Thus equipped, I run down the stairs and sprint when I reach the passage to the demon's lair; I hurry past it, just barely managing to evade a blow from its staff, and I hear it shoot lightning behind me. Moments later, however, I'm out the other side, into a misty green land. Quickly, I round the left-hand corner so I cannot be struck; the monster's lightning crackles against the other side of the wall repeatedly, but I am in no danger. Safe, I change back into my knight armor, then walk away from the building I just escaped.

A brightly glowing flower is the first thing I notice - it simply radiates brilliant light, illuminating the moss-covered trees surrounding me. From the light, I can see that I am in a forest; this must be the Darkroot Garden. It is indeed dark here, almost sleepy, and I preemptively raise my shield again. To be sure, I look around the other side of the building first, but all I find is a pile of crumbling brick that used to be a wall, and is still high enough to keep me from passing it; I turn back the other way, my shield still raised, and proceed.

My path is marked by a second glowing flower. The lush greenery thickens, and I can hear the chirping of insects all around me; the air is heavy and humid, but in a somehow cold way rather than tropical - my sight and breathing are hindered, and a chill seeps through my armor with the moisture. There's a small, crystal-clear puddle next to the flower, and I take a step to look at it, when, in my peripheral vision, I barely manage to catch sight of movement; I turn, shield raised, and see a vaguely humanoid plant running for me. It takes a few strikes from my sword to cut it down, and it proves its vine-y appendages to be dangerous in the fight, though I escape harm. Even a single meter from the flower, it's still dark and murky here, and the plant creature blends in perfectly with the surroundings; I will need to be careful.

Further, I find myself splashing through a slightly deeper puddle, and I see the outline of another plant creature heading for me. This one tries to keep its distance while attacking with its whiplike vines; my shield protects me from any damage. Beyond this, the path gets slightly more treacherous, with a cliff directly to my left, the edge of which is rounded out by foliage and probably slippery; I hug the hill to my right and continue on, passing a brick tower on my left and wondering what else is in this forest. Ahead, the path widens to a space dotted with puddles, and though it looks empty, I keep my guard up; it's a good thing I do, as I soon see another plant creature running at me through the mist. When I run forward to meet it, another such creature that had disguised itself as a bush bursts from the ground just behind me. Trying to avoid having to fight both at once, I hurry to cut down the first one, and here I discover that my heavy sword knocks them off-balance with each strike, meaning there's no reason not to charge at them instead of holding back to guard. Once both monsters are dead, I take a closer look at them. On one of them, I find a bloodred clump of moss, a medicinal plant that can be packed into wounds to stop blood loss; I tuck it away.

Further along the path and behind a rock, I find a corpse with a large soulmass, one of the largest I've seen. The ground then narrows into another slippery ledge, and again, I hug the steep hill to the right. Then, through the mist, I see a bright light - not from a flower, from something else. I approach it, and find a doorway with a round opening through which shines brilliant light; the doorway is locked by magic, and I remember the Crest of Artorias that Andre carried. This must be where the crest goes.

To my left is a pile of bricks from a crumbling wall; beside the pile is an archway that is completely closed off with bricks. Something about it seems suspicious, and the pendant warms against my chest; I strike the barricade with my sword, just to see, and it simply fades away - it was only an illusion. Behind it is a small ledge with a bonfire, and I light the fire and stop a moment to rest, though I'm not really injured.

After a minute, I stand up again, and look around to find where to go. There's a path that leads down further into the woods to the right of the sealed door, half-hidden behind a crumbling wall; I walk down an empty passage between two mossy cliffs, and come to a fork, one path leading to my right, the other in front of me and blocked by white light. I still haven't figured out what the barriers of light mean, so I decide to check the path going right first.

This brings me to an enclosed space with a faintly glowing corpse at its exact center; I creep forward slowly, waiting for something to happen, but all is still. When, I reach the corpse, I take what it contains without any more caution: A large soulmass, another of the largest I've ever seen. Naturally, the moment I take it, three plant monsters burst from the ground around me. When I slash at the nearest one, the vines of the other two smack against my back; trying to maneuver into a better position, I back up, around them, working to keep my shield pointed at all of them as I exit the space, leaving them to bottleneck after me. With them all crowding through the entrance, I can swing my sword and hit two or even all three of them at a time, but their combined attacks knock the shield out of my hand frequently. At one point, one of the plant people grabs me and sticks my head through its chest; thorns like teeth rip at me while I'm helpless, struggling to escape its grasp. Still, I fight on, and twice, my blue tearstone ring is the sole reason I survive. At last, I cut them all down, and drink from my Estus Flask, leaving me with six swallows. My enemies gone, my injuries healed, I go back into the space where I found them, and discover that this is a dead end - my only option for proceeding was the way blocked by white light all along. Annoyed, I go back and traverse the barrier; it dissipates behind me.

Clear water covers the spot I come to in a shallow pool. Off to my left is another of those glowing flowers that mark a path, but I see flat land ahead of me through numerous trees - I've finally entered a true forest. I proceed carefully, my shield up, not wanting to be caught by surprise. Several steps forward, I discover that there's an entire trail of glowing flowers headed directly to my left; I can also make out some strange figures through the trees ahead of me. Suddenly, to my right, I catch a glimpse of movement in my peripheral vision; cautiously, I turn towards it, and find a bright green tree with its roots waving back and forth like tentacles. When I approach it to investigate, nothing happens, but I swing my sword at it all the same; a gash appears in the tree, and though it doesn't flinch, I can tell I've injured it, that it is alive. With no reason not to, I slash at it with my sword again and again, until it gives a strange growling cry and disintegrates, revealing a gap in the rocks.

Now I'm unsure. Do I take this hidden path, the path marked by flowers, or enter the forest? The hidden path is likely not the direction I'm supposed to take, which means my objective - whatever it may be - probably isn't that way; so, I take the newly opened passage. It is narrow and steep, and I can tell that less sturdy boots might slip on the damp, twig-covered ground; it almost turns into a cave at one point, the rocky crags that apparently litter this forest merging to completely close off the sky. Soon, I come to an open area, where a large red-and-black creature, flat and slimy, like a lily pad and a frog in one, is waiting; it strikes at me with its long tongue, but my shield blocks it, and I cut it down quickly. After it dies, I have to work hard to dislodge it from behind a boulder to inspect it; this is far more difficult than it ought to be, but I'm ultimately glad that I do it, for I find a couple of green blossoms growing on its body, plants that invigorate a person, which I tuck away for later use.

Another narrow passage downwards between crags ends with another living tree. From here, I can see it in its entirety, and I realize it moves a lot more than I thought it did: It slowly expands and contracts, as though it's breathing, and it cycles between rotating counterclockwise on its axis and then stopping for a few moments. It's a fascinating plant, and I could go around it, but I cut it down - whatever it is, it has souls that I absorb with its death, and I need all the souls I can get.

Passing this brings me to another space of open forest, with a few brick towers here and there detracting from the sensation of wilderness. Cautiously, I proceed - I'm not used to open spaces like this, where anything could attack me from any direction. Two piles of bricks flank a narrow opening in a nearby cliff, but I decide to leave that for later inspection. A few steps later, I come across what appears to be a large corpse, though its body gleams metallically - perhaps it's wearing armor? Very slowly, I approach, but I only get another two steps before it slowly rises, revealing itself to be a metal golem of some sort. As soon as it's standing, it thrusts its enormous sword at me, much more nimble than something so large and metal ought to be, and I backpedal quickly; it's almost faster than I am. It makes a tremendous swing that ends with the sword in the ground, and, thinking that this is similar to the black knight's mace, I run forward to take a swing, but it turns out to be one step in a series of strikes, and I take a powerful slash from the enormous sword; though I strike it as well, _my_ sword does very little. Almost afraid now, I start backing up; at one point, I get lost, trying to retreat up the path I came down but ending up with my back against a wall, which gets me hit again, nearly killing me. I need to drink from my Estus Flask, then turn around and run - maybe, since it's so huge, I can get it stuck somewhere in the narrow passage, which would mean I'll be better able to fight it. At about the same time as I think of this, I remember the firebombs and black firebombs I intended to use against the Fang Boar; now might be the time to use them.

Starting with the black firebombs, I turn around once more to continue walking backwards with my shield up. These appear to do a not-insignificant amount of damage to the behemoth; I only have four, though, and soon switch to regular firebombs, which do about as much as my sword did. When I get back to the space where I found the lily-frog, however, the monster starts to back off; apparently, I'm past the area it wishes to protect. Being on the outskirts of the creature's domain like this, I am able to throw firebombs at it in near-safety. Eventually, it falls.

Flushed at my success, I go back down, intending to search around where I found it, firebombs still on-hand just in case. A little ways past where I found the giant, I come to the edge of a cliff that drops off into a lake. The moment I've registered this, four lily-frogs jump out of the water. I take them on one at a time - the ones further away are slower to get to me, so it's not too difficult, but still, I am injured by the time I've defeated them all. Two more green blossoms are growing on one of them; I take them, then return to the water's edge.

Below, the sound of the water is soothing - it's like the waves of an ocean against a beach. However, I have no way of knowing how deep the water actually is, and the cliff itself is pretty high, so I don't take the stupid risk of jumping off. Instead, I search around the edges of the opening, where ledges allow me to walk around the hills of stone; in an alcove off along the far edge, I find a corpse with a large soulmass, the biggest I've found so far.

To be thorough, I look around the area a bit more, but there's nothing else to find; at last, I'm left only with the cave in the rocks. Through it, stone slabs sporadically embedded in the dirt act as steps that help make the steep hill navigable, and at the top is another golem. I take out my firebombs and start walking backwards, throwing at it whenever I think I have time; it only manages to strike me once, and it's nothing Estus can't fix. Being lower than it on this steep hill is very advantageous, and before too long, I've taken it down. With the guardian gone, I climb back up again, and eventually find myself on a slippery ledge, at the very end of which is a corpse.

On the corpse's hand, I find the Wolf Ring. This is one of the rings of the four knights of Gwyn - Artorias the Abysswalker, who was known for his unbendable will of steel, was the one who received this ring, if the engravings are any indication, and which makes sense given that his crest opens a door in this forest. Having a spare ring finger, I slip it on, and am filled with determination - not pig-headed stubbornness, as my love had, but a sort of confidence and resolve.

Some ground dotted with puddles can be seen to my left, and it takes me a minute to realize it's the way I came. There's a bottomless chasm between me and it, but still, it's interesting to see how I managed to circumnavigate the whole place by following this path.

At last, it's time to head back to the area before the passage that was hidden by breathing trees; I climb back up and splash into the shallow pool at the entrance. Looking through the trees now, I can tell that one of the figures I noticed before is actually a golem lying on the ground; I don't want to fight another - I doubt I have enough firebombs - and the glowing flowers lead along the left-hand wall of the area anyway, so I follow the edge. Partway along the wall, I find a narrow alcove in the rock. Unconcerned, I start to walk down it, when I hear a noise like dirt and pebbles showering onto the ground behind me; I turn, and see a plant creature running towards me. This, I fight it off without much trouble, glad I payed attention. Once that's done, I return to inspecting the alcove, and find a corpse at the base of a tree. Strange vines with ends that look like the heads of snakes are wrapped around the tree, though, and instead of taking a closer look at anything, I immediately swing my sword at the tree. Sure enough, the vines are actually a lizard with two long, snaking heads; it doesn't pose a threat, and I dispatch of it quickly. The corpse itself turns out to be carrying a Partizan; I compare it to my sword, but again find that it's inferior in every way. So far, only the battle axe made from the gargoyle's tail has had benefits above my broadsword, and my sword is still stronger as a weapon; whether it's because my sword is powerful as itself or from the reinforcements I've made on it with titanite matters little.

Back to following the edge of the forest patch I go. Nothing assaults me, and soon, I come to some crumbling ruins. Tucked away in a corner is another tree with what appears to be a snake-vine-lizard, and I take a moment to dispatch of it before heading for the ruins; one of the heads manages to bite me, and I feel a surge of poison rush through my system, just barely not strong enough to actually take hold - my body is still purging the stuff when the lizard is dead, if only just. The ruins themselves appear to actually be part of a castle, and one intact wall contains a doorway that I seek to pass. Just outside the doorway, though, is another golem; when it rises, I begin to fight it off with all that's left of my firebombs. One of the firebombs actually catches on his shield and does almost nothing; I have to keep backing up, away from it, and sometimes it manages to make a running strike that hits my shield - though I block it, I notice again that it's far more fast and nimble than a huge metal statue has any right being. Only one slash of its enormous blade actually hits me, though, and Estus heals up any injuries I accrue. Finally, it falls, and I'm free to explore the castle.

I pick my way over the various bricks littered everywhere and walk inside. What I find is an empty square room with a staircase leading up; I look around, and somehow, among some shrubs, I find a summon sign left by an Undead - not Solaire, but some sort of magician I don't recognize right away from the shadow-phantom that appears above the sign. For a moment, I debate; then I decide to summon them, since, whoever they are, this sign is placed here solely so that they can assist. As the phantom rises from the ground, runes tell me that the Witch Beatrice is her name; I've never met her, but I'm sure she'll be helpful. With the white phantom following behind me, I climb the crumbling, ruined, brick-littered staircase, and sure enough, when I get to the top, I find a doorway blocked off by white light. Before I go, I pause a moment to let her catch up; then, I pass through it.

For a few moments, there is nothing. Then, from the sky, descends an enormous, glimmering butterfly. Its wings are split into two on each side, a series of circles that seem artificial are attached to its back, and its head is mostly made up of a pair of long antenna-horns that twist around each other. Beatrice shoots a powerful spell at it that does some significant damage, and for a moment, I think we might defeat this creature easily, even fear she might do the whole thing for me; then the monster starts to fight back, and I quickly realize its frightening power. Magic - sometimes spikes of light, sometimes tracking green orbs - spurts from it frequently, and the witch's spells are very slow and sometimes miss. Soon, I've run out of Estus, and try to keep out of the butterfly's way but fail most of the time due to my heavy armor. At one point, the butterfly lands on the bridge, and both the white phantom and I run for the creature and start attacking it with everything we have, but it's not enough. Severely injured, the butterfly tries something it hasn't done before, rising above the narrow parapet we're on, and I can't even see what it's doing - apart from a bright flash of light - before I die.

Back at the bonfire I discovered behind the illusory wall, I take a moment to breathe. I'm Hollow again, and this bonfire only allows me to gather five drinks' worth of Estus. However, I have a Twin Humanities on me, and that's perfect - one to revive myself, one to kindle the flame. I use it, and spend both humanities; now I have ten swallows of Estus to sustain myself, but I realize now that I have another problem: I've used up all my firebombs, and even if I avoid as much as I can, that golem outside the castle will be alive again - I won't be able to fight it. Perhaps…perhaps this is another instance where I will need to use lighter armor. If only I could find some sort of improved set! Resignedly, I take off my heavy plating and don the chain mail. On a sudden burst of inspiration, I decide to check the gargoyle helm, and I find that it's actually a much better defense in every single way, and is only a tiny bit heavier than the chain link helm - it's also a bit more dignified, so I don it instead. Out of curiosity, I then check it against the helm I've been using, and discover it's even stronger than that, and more than a little bit lighter! I've been such a fool not to try this, after all the trouble I went through to obtain it - it's better than just a trophy.

Properly equipped at last, I turn around and happen to look up, and that's when I see the butterfly I was just fighting perched atop the ruins of a castle - it was within my sight all along, and it's interesting to be able to see where I'm going. I walk towards the path, and then check over my equipment again; I decide it's okay to wear my knight armor on my torso, since it was reinforced with titanite, and keep the gloves and leggings from the chain mail set. There. A bit more weight, and a lot more protection; now I feel ready. When I get to the trio of plant monsters in the space off to the right, however - and they aren't bothering hiding now that the corpse has been looted - though I fight hard, I die.

This frustrates me, as I had a ton of souls when I lost to the giant butterfly, and now I've lost them all. I'm also Hollow again, and I use my last Humanity sprite to restore myself; I'm hesitant to try once more, though, as I'll have no other Humanities to restore myself if I fail. After some deliberation, I decide to re-equip my knight armor (apart from the gargoyle helm, which I'm going to keep) and head back instead of going on.

On the way back, around the spot where I attract attention from the first plant monster I came across in the forest - which has revived - I see an alternate path that was hidden from view on the way in, but is clearly illuminated with a glowing flower from this angle. After I kill the last plant monster, I take this new path, and when I reach the flower itself, I appear to be on a dead-end cliff edge; looking around more carefully, however, I discover a series of narrow, slippery ledges that will lead me downwards. No other paths are immediately apparent to me right now, so I take it, navigating the slopes carefully. After a short ways, I see something glowing in the distance; my pendant warms, and a flash of my memory of the lizard with a giant crystal in its back tells me its another one of those creatures. They don't fight, they flee, so I sprint for it, hoping but not expecting to catch it in time; I don't.

Down a few more treacherous ledges, I find a slick mound that I slide off onto a ledge where a corpse lies; this one is wearing a leather set of armor (without headgear) that isn't much worse for the wear, as well as carrying a longbow and sixteen feathered arrows. While the leather armor is a lot lighter than mine, it is also a lot weaker; still, the bow and arrows are nice.

A few more ledges down, though a wide path leads forward alongside the cliff, I keep taking the narrow ones that slope downwards, and soon, I find a black knight, this one bearing a halberd. It's strong, and for a little while, I don't think I can fight it, but it soon becomes clear that I also can't outrun it; therefore, I do fight, trying to be careful and avoid getting hit too much - at one point, I literally could not come closer to dying. After a bit of time where I lose terribly, I think to try parrying the creature; I manage to get three parry-and-ripostes in, as well as a few slashes, and finally, the monster dies, disintegrating with a huge roar. From this, I get a chunk of titanite that is blue in color - useless to me right now, but I tuck it away. Then I go down to where I found the knight to see what it was guarding; here, I find a corpse carrying a Grass Crest Shield.

Given pause, I look long and hard at this shield. It's not as strong as the shield I carry, but it blocks magic a bit better, and more importantly, there is a light enchantment on it that will invigorate me - this is valuable. Also, it's no heavier than my current shield, even if it's also no lighter. Ultimately, I decide to switch it out.

While heading back up, I find a cave, and inside it, there is a bonfire. The cave also goes a bit further, but through the flames, she tells me not to bother with that path, at least not yet; so, I turn back, and decide it's time to return to Andre - maybe he can help me prepare better for whatever I decide to do next. I switch back into my chain link suit to run past the headless demon, and then I'm in his forge. Relieved, I put my knight armor back on, then remove my helm and put away my sword and shield, to be polite.

He greets me friendlily, and I show him what I have. Now that I know the gargoyle helm isn't useless, I ask if he can reinforce it, and he informs me that he can, but only with twinkling titanite; I still have the two chunks of the stuff I got from the crystal lizard in the tower, and he uses them to reinforce the helm twice over. With that, I bid farewell, he wishes me well, and I go back up to the bonfire above.

Now I have a choice. Do I go back into the Darkroot Garden, or do I try for the Catacombs or some other path? My love begs to tell me, and at last, I give in. She reminds me of the key in my possession that I haven't yet used, and says it goes to the locked tower that flanks the bridge guarded by the red drake. It's partly my own fault for forgetting about that door, so I thank her, then head there. On the way, I take a moment to use the shortcut to the bonfire directly below the drake's domain and refill my Estus Flask before actually tackling the bridge, climbing up the stairs from below; on the bridge itself, the drake is much more quick to unleash a sea of fire, but I somehow manage to outrun it, the souls of all the soldiers on the bridge flowing into me as I go. Then I'm at the door, and use the key; as promised, it works.

Past the door is a set of stairs, and then a very, _very_ long ladder that I slide down, gripping the sides with my fingers and the insides of my feet, almost afraid of going into free-fall. At the bottom of that is still more stairs, and I realize I'm descending the whole distance I climbed before. But for what?

Through a stone room and out a doorway, I'm left with stairs to my right that go up and stairs in front of me that go down; I decide to take the stairs up first. The stairs lead to more stairs, which lead to more stairs, which bring me to a vine-covered metal gate that is locked on this side; I open it, and I find myself just across the narrow stone bridge from the bonfire I was just at. Another shortcut! Just for fun, I kill all the Hollows at the top, and then I go down again.

Down the stairs I didn't use before, I soon find an enormous plume of fire burning just to the left of the handrail. Up the stairs runs a black creature, and I can't tell whether it's a dog or a lizard; a minute after I kill it, another runs up after it. After that one, I wait for a little while, but no more come, so I continue to descend; at the bottom, I'm greeted by another black lizard-dog, and then I find myself on a cobblestone street, complete with sidewalks. This place feels more like a residential area - there are barrels and boxes and wagon wheels and even a wheelbarrow among the ruins. The road goes back and to my right, and forward and to my left; I turn right, and start cautiously walking along the street. After a short ways, I come to a locked wooden door; I barely approach it before a man's voice starts calling from inside, panicked:

"Somebody! Please, let me out of here! Somebody, anybody!" I hear a sigh, and then the voice says to himself, "Damn…How did this ever happen…"

I have the residence key I bought from the trinket stand, and this is still Undead Burg, so I try it; it works, and I open the door, revealing a small room full of barrels. A young man with longish hair and a cloak stands among them; I approach him and smile.

"Greetings," I say.

He smiles back. "Brilliant!" he says. "You unlocked the door for me! Thank you; I am saved. I thought I might never escape." He draws himself up. "I am Griggs of Vinheim, a sorcerer of the school," he introduces himself. "I am much obliged for your assistance. Thanks to you, I may now resume my travels."

"Not at all," I say. "I am Deimos, knight of Astora."

"Oh, hello," he says in acknowledgement.

"Will you be alright?" I ask.

"I am fine," he reassures me. "I will rest a while, then return to Firelink Shrine. I have my sorcery. And I will be more cautious next time. Besides, I have an important task at hand."

Assured, I nod and bid him farewell. Before I leave, I break open some of the barrels, noticing one contains a corpse; on the corpse, by some strange coincidence, I find a full set of sorcerers' robes and a magic wand - a catalyst, as it's called. Then I leave, debating for a moment before deciding to return to Firelink Shrine myself.

Nothing of significance happens when I fight my way back through all the Hollows. Once I rest at the bonfire of this place I now know to be called Firelink Shrine and strengthen myself with the souls I've gathered, I turn to my acquaintance and ask how he's doing.

"Well, what are you going to do?" he asks me, almost mockingly. "I've already decided. It doesn't matter. I'm simply crestfallen…"

 _Crestfallen people don't think of themselves as such,_ I think, but instead, I say, "It seems like everyone rests here."

"How did that nutty sorcerer make it back?" he asks, sort of in agreement. "Unexpected, but I suppose stranger things have happened." He turns away again, moody once more.

Prompted by his statement, I leave him be, then look around a corner and find Griggs - he must have gotten here so soon due to Lordran's distorted flow of time. Deciding not to be bothered by it, I greet him.

"Oh, hello," he says, his voice quick and light. "I regret meeting you under such compromising circumstances. At least we both made it back unscathed. Incidentally, would you care to learn any sorceries? You're clearly talented, and besides, I owe you. Of course we will require some materials, but I am happy to teach you some elementary spells. Are you interested?"

"Yes," I reply without hesitation.

"Splendid!" he says brightly. "Very well! I am pleased to have a chance to give something back. Well, then let's get started straight away."

I look at what he offers me. He sells a wand - the same as the one I just found - as well as a couple of Dragoncrest rings. His actual spells are really quite useful, covering a much broader range than what Ricket offered, but even the simplest spell costs souls, and I simply don't have enough; I make a mental note to return to him in the future. Still, I must ask him about what his mission was.

"Have you heard of Big Hat Logan?" he asks in return. "Master Logan is a great sorcerer, and my teacher. Both of us came to this land, as Undead. But one day, he departed leaving only a note. I suppose he wished to keep me out of harm's way. But where does that leave me? I have dedicated myself to sorcery. But Master Logan could find no use for me…"

"I'm sure it's not like that," I say, somewhat disgusted by the boy's selfish self-pity. "What did his note say to you?"

"Ah yes, the note Master Logan left…It only said he was going to Anor Londo by way of Sen's Fortress," Griggs replies. "I guess that he seeks the regal Archives. For Logan is a tireless pursuer of wisdom, wisdom trumps all, everything else is hogwash. When the curse turned him Undead, I'm certain that he only felt it was the perfect time to visit this land. If only I had his courage…"

Again, pathetic. But I don't antagonize him; instead, I change the subject. "Can you tell me more about sorcery?" I ask. "I never got the chance to learn any in Astora."

"Two things are required for sorcery," Griggs tells me. "First you must equip a wand. Second, you must attune a sorcery. Then, you will be ready to fire away! Oh, and don't forget to aim," he adds, half-chuckling.

I nod my thanks. "Farewell," tell him.

"Goodbye then," he says. "Do stay safe."

"I will," I promise, and I go back to rest at the bonfire and think.


	10. Chapter 9

When I stand once more, I'm not sure what it is I want to do. Hunt Hollows to gather souls? Challenge the butterfly again? Go back to where I found Griggs? Explore the graveyard further? Try the ruins far below?…The graveyard, I decide; I can fight off the large skeleton, and the trio of smaller ones with it - it can't be any more difficult than those golems in the forest, though of course, I have no firebombs left. Soon I'll have enough souls to learn magic, though, so I'll do that first.

I splash through the pool in the ruins, my ears alert for the sound of snoring, but there is nothing. Beyond there, I travel down the hill and rouse the first two skeletons. I'm too cocky in how I fight them, though, and after a good fight, they kill me.

Just like that, I'm Hollow, and have no means of recovering. With nothing left to lose, there's no reason for me to not take risks in trying to gain whatever I may seek or find. So, I return to the graveyard with reckless abandon; I do of course manage to recover the souls I lost. The skeletons put up another good fight, and at one point, I have to use that clump of bloodred moss I found in the forest to pack in a wound that's causing blood loss, but I defeat them.

Now I have enough souls for a spell, so it's time to learn one. Only the cheapest one - a simple Soul Arrow - is within my means, but a ranged attack that I won't run out of will be a welcome asset.

"Oh, hello," Griggs greets me. He notes my Hollowed face, but only says, "Well, you certainly are keeping at it."

I nod, almost sheepishly. "How are you?" I ask.

"Myself? I am fine," he replies. "Let's get started straight away."

"Teach me how to cast a Soul Arrow," I tell him.

He shows me, and the magic passes from him to me. It's as much an item as a force, but I can't use it like this, somehow. This is all I can take, but I'm still grateful.

"All right," Griggs says when we're done. "That'll do it. That should help you on your journey." He gives a slight, informal bow. "May we meet again."

I nod my agreement, then go - I can't use this magic, but I'm still going to return to the graveyard to keep exploring. I'll figure the spell out later.

Fighting my way back to the trio of skeletons takes me only one more swig from my Estus Flask, as there is only the single pair of skeletons still in my way. These monsters are formidable, and almost a welcome challenge in a way, especially now that I don't have to worry about going Hollow; I put up a fight, but one skeleton manages to parry and riposte _me_ , and that's the end of it. This makes me wonder if I can parry them, and decide to try it next - I'm determined, now, to show her up. She was kind and gentle, and I cannot allow her to be stronger than me; it's not so much stubbornness as it is competitiveness.

With a bit of practice, I discover I _can_ parry and riposte the skeletons - they don't give off an enormous spray of blood, but the effect is the same. Back at the trio, just as the fight begins, I manage to parry and riposte one of them, and this gives me some confidence. After that, though, the fight becomes a matter of backing up while blocking and swinging my sword. It kind of turns into a mess, but two of the smaller skeletons go down, one at a time, and then we reach the entrance to the pool, at which point the remaining skeletons seem to give up. I engage the last small one while the large one walks away, giving me plenty of time to finish it off; I managed to get quite a few hits in on the big one on the way, so when I come back within the range it apparently cares about, it doesn't take too many more hits to bring it down.

My chest swells with triumph. Without special weapons, without magic, with one swallow of Estus left, I have brought down beasts that she had difficulty contending with until the end. Proudly, I stride back to where these skeletons were, to see what it was they were guarding. At the base of a massive gravestone, I find a corpse carrying a Zweihander; this is a powerful sword, but it's heavy, and I'm not yet strong enough to lift it. Still, I'm glad to have found it.

To the left, at the edge of a cliff, I find a corpse carrying some brass binoculars; these aren't the most useful of tools, but I'll hold onto them just in case. Come to think of it, she had a pair just like these…but of course, I know it's a coincidence. Up the hill to the right, I find another giant skeleton. Being cocky from my victory, I'm careless, and with me being also down to the last of my Estus, it kills me without much trouble.

Back at the bonfire again, I'm now more determined than ever; I charge back to the graveyard, ready to take everything on - if I could take down a swarm of small skeletons and a giant skeleton together, one single giant skeleton on its own will _not_ best me. When I get back to the group, I backstep and backstep, trying to get to the edge of their domain - I figure being able to have a moment to breathe every now and again will be helpful. Once we're there, in an attempt to preemptively dodge me, the giant skeleton side-jumps right off a cliff and dies; this gives me an idea, and I hit another skeleton until it falls off, too. One of them had been defeated before, leaving me with one left to fight, and that's no difficulty. This time, I have three swallows of Estus left in my Flask, and I'm more prepared.

First I recover the power I lost before, then I trigger the giant skeleton. I'm careful this time, taking on a strategy much like the one I used against the black knight that wielded the mace: I only strike after it makes the attack I know I have time after - in this case, slamming its humongous sword down onto the ground with both hands. We go back, and back, and back, all the way to the stairs out of the graveyard, as it seems determined not to do the thing it knows will give me a chance to hit it. Every time I do strike - and even sometimes when I don't - the beast leaps back or to the side, leaving me disoriented for a moment, and every moment counts. At last, I defeat it, and still with one swig of Estus left; I'm hurt, but I save the Estus in case there's more danger ahead.

I walk all the way back to where the giant skeleton was resting. At the base of another enormous tombstone is a corpse carrying a Winged Spear; this is a beautiful weapon - it was her weapon of choice - and the fact that it can be used without lowering my shield and exposing myself is tempting, but the truth is, it's much weaker than my sword, and heavier, and I'm actually not quite strong enough to wield it. With each weapon I find, I become more convinced that my broadsword will be my best weapon.

When I then follow the path the short rest of the way, I find myself…back at the beginning of the graveyard. Apparently, I explored all of it. Out of pure curiosity, I head back for a path leading down a narrow ledge I noticed earlier. On the way, I notice a gap in the tombstones to my left, and discover a hidden path, in the middle of which lies a body carrying a roundshield decorated by a blue Caduccus. This is solid wood, and I can tell from the style that it blocks magic well; but it's still weaker than my shield, even the Grass Crest Shield, and I hold onto it without intending to use it. Two more skeletons awaken around the corpse, but the field of gravestones is thick here, and I have no trouble defeating them.

At last, I reach the ledge I noticed before; I go down it, and soon find myself descending stone steps into a cave. Moments later, the narrow cave opens to reveal stone structures deliberately built into the ground; at a guess, I'd say this is the Catacombs. Remembering what Andre said about the creatures here, I decide to go back without looking any further - I'm almost out of Estus anyway.

I return to the bonfire. Soothing heat washes over me, healing me, and my Estus Flask fills to the brim. Once more, I can feel her in the fire…and this time, I notice something else in the flames - I can't quite make it out, but something calls to me. The spell I learned from Griggs is reacting with the bonfire, and she guides me, showing me how to ready a spell to be used the moment I equip a wand; I have one spell, but only enough capacity to use one at a time just now anyway. It turns out to have a limited number of uses, but she reassures me I can restore it at bonfires, same as my Estus Flask.

Before I stand, she shows me a few images I don't understand: Jumping off a ledge, a body atop the Firelink ruins, a huge nest with eggs, and the giant raven that brought me here carrying something to the Northern Undead Asylum. Slightly confused, I thank her for her help, then walk over to my nameless acquaintance, who is still sitting in the same place; I greet him.

"Have you been to the ruins of New Londo below?" he asks me. "Just head down the stairs, and take the lift. It's certainly worth a visit. It was once an Undead city. You may find a clue or two. Unless the ghosts find you first…" He chuckles.

New Londo. That must be the place I went to back when this journey began. She warned me not to go there yet, insisted something far too dangerous was in the ruins proper; now, I'm beginning to wonder if I'm ready. Thinking, I start to walk away; then I change my mind, and return.

"You again?" he asks before I can even say another word. "There's nothing to speak about, really. Oh, actually…Something strange did happen. That crow flew off with somebody in its clutches. I think it was a man curled up in a ball. Stranger things have happened, right? No, maybe not…"

A prickle runs down my spine, as I recall the flashes of images she just showed me. Curious now, I take out the binoculars I just found and peer up at the giant raven, which I can still see perched on one of the ruin walls. It takes me a minute, but I notice a large nest perched high on the top of a wall that is still intact near it. Was she telling me I can get up there? But how?

Finally, I decide to take the lift back up to the Undead Parish, maybe buy an upgrade or two from Andre; I step on the lift, and look out at the world sinking behind me. Moments later, though, I recognize one of her images, and I jump off the lift, which doesn't have its own walls. Now I'm standing on a rooftop of some of the Firelink ruins, high above anywhere I've been before. The ledge she showed a person jumping off is to my right, and I'm probably too heavy to make it like this…so I strip down. No need to have any weight, and it's not like there's anyone around to see me. Unable to resist, I look down at myself, and see the ribs through the charred, shrunken skin of a Hollow; I know every bone is visible, and that my flesh is withered and appears skinless. Yes…it's _very_ good no one can see me in this state.

Rid of the weight of my armor, I proceed to try to make the jump, but I miss. Embarrassed, I put my knight armor back on so I can return to the bonfire to heal the injuries from my fall without anyone seeing my Hollowness. I'm now in the hidden space full of treasure chests, and have to jump down another ledge into the graveyard; I forget that the skeletons' life forces have been returned to them, and they catch me by surprise. My blue tearstone ring saves me, and I maneuver around them and run back to the bonfire to reset everything. Then I go back to try again.

Once again, when I'm at the jump, I strip down all my armor so nothing's weighing me down. This time, I make it, and the drop doesn't even hurt. I can see that some nimble maneuvering will still be required up here, so I debate before putting my armor back on; ultimately, I decide to put on the leather armor with no helm - it's not sturdy and it doesn't look flashy, but it's lighter than anything else I have. That settled, I climb a buttress, then the narrow remains of some stairs along the inside of the crumbling remains of what appears to be a tower, followed by some more stairs on the outside; I follow a ledge, then jump down, far down, onto a roof I recognize from her vision - I take a little bit of damage from the fall, but not much. Up here, I find a corpse that is holding a key for some reason; I stow it away, trusting it will be useful, and drop through a hole in this ceiling, returning me to a spot just in front of Petrus. Acknowledging him with only a wordless nod, I hurry back to the bonfire to heal my fall wounds, then go back up again. Again I miss the jump this time, so I heal and re-clothe and return to the bonfire - not forgetting the skeletons - then back up again. These difficulties don't dissuade me; I _must_ see where this goes.

This time, I make the jump, and I put my knight armor and gargoyle helm back on - there won't be any more jumping as long as I don't fall by accident, so there's no more need to go on undressed or half-dressed. I climb up to the top, and this time, I go to the enormous bird's nest. In it are two blue-green, speckled eggs, roughly my size; between the vision and my acquaintance's words, I follow a hunch and curl up so I'm roughly the same shape as them as well. For a minute, nothing happens. Then, suddenly, the raven swoops up, grips me in its talons, and flies off through the air, carrying me with it. When it drops me, I'm back at the Northern Undead Asylum, in a nest that the raven apparently built on the end of the cliff it snatched me from before.

I don't know what's here now, but I trust that there is something to find. At the bottom of the hill is a mob of five or so ragged Hollows with torches; I run down to meet them, but they're far stronger than they ought to be, and because I underestimate them, they kill me, without even too much trouble. When I wake up at the Firelink Shrine again, I'm humiliated, and I hurry back up to the nest to try again. Again, of course, I miss the jump and have to try once more; it seems as if it will always be like this. This time, a skeleton actually follows me to the bonfire, and the flame dies until I kill it. The second time, too, I miss the jump, but this time it was because I waited too long; I'm getting frustrated, but if nothing else, I need to recover the souls I left in the Northern Undead Asylum. When a skeleton follows me again, I demolish it.

At last, I make it back to the nest. This time, the raven comes for me immediately, and soon, I'm back in the snowy mountains again. I won't let those Hollows catch me unawares a second time - they may be stronger now, but so am I. Of course, I overestimate myself again, and soon after I reclaim the power I lost, I'm back at the Firelink Shrine once more.

Now I'm getting angry. I've fought gargoyles and slaughtered them, but a few ragged Hollows have killed me twice in a row? Unacceptable. I won't do anything else until I conquer the Northern Undead Asylum once and for all.

It takes me _four_ tries to get to the nest this time. Why is this so difficult? _She_ never had a problem! Regardless, I'm just glad I'm there once I'm there, and I will not let those Hollows make a fool out of me a third time. I'm a bit more tactical in my approach this time, and at last, I manage to kill them all; I can finally explore.

I search around outside the Asylum first. Off on a ledge to the side, I see a smaller nest, and I approach it. There doesn't appear to be anything there but a couple of eggs, but once I've edged my way out close enough, a distinctly feminine voice caws at me.

" _Caw caw_! You, you! _Caw_! Give me, warm. Give me, soft. _Caw_!"

Warm and soft? Curious, I walk to the nest, which on close inspection appears to be exactly the same as the nest at Firelink Shrine, only half the size, eggs and all. I have nothing I'm really happy to give, except…maybe one of the waistcloths I've taken from Hollows? Since I might as well, I drop it in the nest.

"No, no," says the voice. " _Caw_! That, no! _Caw_! That no warm. That no soft. _Caw caw_!"

A soldier waistcloth gets the same response. Stymied, I search through everything I own, and finally I find that piece of garbage I picked up a while ago. It's kind of soft, I guess…and don't birds make their nests out of trash? There's no real use for it, so I drop it.

The voice says nothing. Nothing happens at all. I hesitate a moment, then decide to just leave the invisible bird with it. There's nothing else out here, so I return to the inside of the Asylum.

Here, I find myself in the same courtyard where I fought the first demon I ever saw. There are a couple of Hollows around the edge, but as I approach, they don't cross the center of the courtyard to get to me, instead holding to the edges; I wonder about this, and decide to skirt the edges myself, so I can at least use the bonfire that's just beyond to ensure I won't end up back at the Firelink Shrine if I die.

The bonfire is just as it was. How long ago was I last here? My first bonfire I ever found…the first time I felt her presence since she left this place on her own quest. I wonder what it was she saw here, before and after…I wonder about her. But this place needs to be explored. Now that I've marked this as my checkpoint, it's time to see what happens if I step in the center of the courtyard.

Of course, I have to kill the two Hollows inside again. Then I step where they refused to…and the floor crumbles beneath me. I hit the ground hard, and the next thing I know, I'm in battle with another demon, much like the first one; I try to stay close to it, like the first one, but this one is smarter, and more powerful - it can cast a fiery aura to blast everything around it, and it also knows how to use its tiny wings to fly up a short ways so it can land on top of whatever's under it. One of each of these moves hits me, and I'm dead.

Again, I refuse to let this thing beat me. When I return to the fire, she admits that she came back here on her quest long after she rang the second Bell of Awakening and strengthened herself significantly, and even she had difficulty with it. But that's just all the more reason for me to keep trying. The floor has repaired itself, and the pendant screams at me to return to the nest before I try again; the Hollows with torches are outside, but I fight my way past them. In the nest, the thing I dropped has moved. The voice again pleads for me to give her "warm" and "soft", but I pick up the item still in the nest, and find that, instead of the trash, it's a chunk of titanite. So that's why she wanted me to keep that garbage.

 _Now_ it's time to go back - I have nothing else to give the "warm" and "soft" bird. I let the floor crumble beneath me, and again, I take the long fall hard, but I have a moment to recover with Estus before the fight, and I try again. The monster pounds on me with its weapon twice, and I'm done.

This is not easy. Before I try again, I decide to explore around elsewhere. I remember the locked gate from before that I never got to open; maybe one of the keys I've collected might do the trick. To find out, I head back through the gate in the side of the courtyard and through the wet areas to the place where the Hollow was shooting at me from. Instead of a Hollow shooting at me, however, a black knight with a sword and shield is standing at the end of the hall, waiting for me. I take only a moment to brace myself, then charge in - maybe the demon down below is tough, but no black knight will beat me. This one's very excellent at swordplay, and though I am too, a couple of dumb mistakes eventually get me killed. Still, this one I _know_ I can beat…especially if I use some of the gold pine resin I still have tucked away; I use it on my sword, then go on again.

The lightning has a significant effect, but a lot of fighting this particular knight involves waiting, and the lightning wears off after a little while. This time, I die even faster. Still, I use the last of my gold pine resin for the third attempt, this time using the other bonfire on the way just to be sure.

On my third try, I get so close, so _painfully_ close, and not just because I manage to get more hits on the monster before the gold pine resin wears off - I have this thing's attack patterns down, and I'm not even sure how that one last mistake killed me. I'm out of gold pine resin, but having been impossibly close, I can't stop trying now, not with victory ripped out of my hands like that.

The fourth time, I die quickly, but mostly because… _sigh_ …I'm too slow in my heavy armor. The hallway is narrow, and it's long, but not _that_ long, so sometimes I have to back into the water in the room before it to go around my foe; this time, I wasn't able to get around it before it killed me. It's getting very aggravating, not being able to maneuver in this metal suit. Why haven't I found anything better? In any case…I switch to my chainlink armor - I'll be able to take less hits, but I'll be able to avoid more hits, and I'm still keeping my gargoyle helm.

My fifth try is just as close as the third time - I'm able to maneuver much better, and this does keep me alive longer. In the end, it comes down to me running out of Estus; for a good while, my blue tearstone ring is the only thing keeping me alive, and eventually, the black knight manages to wear me down, its powerful sword just managing to wound me even with my shield up, chipping away at my health until I fall. Still, I know I can do it now; I just wish my lighter armor also looked more dignified.

The next time, I die soon - even in lighter armor, I can't maneuver well in deep water, and the black knight almost seems to know this, moving and jumping around me to keep me from being able to climb out while it hits me. I take a breath and try again.

Seventh try, and I've finally figured out how to maneuver. Just being able to move faster isn't enough, I also have to try the dodge moves I hate seeing enemies use. This works, but one mistake, _one_ _mistake_ , is all it takes to kill me again. I know I can do this. After all, she did - maybe not with this one, but this isn't unlike her fight with the black knight that guarded the blue tearstone ring.

Disarm- _stab_ , I counter. One sweep, I dance back and forth for baiting; two sweeps, I dance more; a thrust, I keep close; a fourth strike, I counter. Dodge, move in, dodge, move in. Wait for it to be stuck in a stance before drinking Estus, and watch out for the running thrust it makes when I drink. It becomes almost hypnotic, the pattern I learn to follow. And then, finally, _finally_ , with much maneuvering, a bit of luck, and actually a bit more aggression, the black knight falls. I'm left with a red chunk of titanite, and a clear path; I take a drink of Estus to heal the last of my wounds, leaving me with two left.

I'm not sure about armor anymore…this stuff just looks so cheap compared to my knight armor. For a minute, I debate, then I put my old armor back on - if I need to change it again, I will. Maybe. Still, the path is clear now, and I proceed, my goal still being the gate that was locked before.

Carrying on, I climb some stairs, and soon, I'm back on the balcony overlooking the outside courtyard in which the bonfire burns. Through a rusted gate, I see a figure in armor stand and walk away from me. It takes me a minute to remember the one who saved me from my cell, but when I round the corner, it's he who charges at me; he's gone Hollow. He fights much more wildly than the black knight did, and the instinct I've built to keep my distance ill aids me here, so he kills me. But the black knight is still gone, so I can go after him and try again - surely, he has souls I can use.

With this in mind, I climb the stairs again, and we continue fighting. I learn quickly that he's more concerned with attacking than defending, and his means of defense are meager - he tries to dodge-roll in his heavy armor, to about the same effectiveness I ever have in my own knight armor, and his kicks to disarm me are weak. Using the Estus Flask he gave me, I'm able to keep myself alive and continue battling him. Eventually, he falls, fading from existence and leaving behind a blue Crest Shield.

All knights have heard of the enchanted blue shields. This one, I can feel from the hum in the metal, is meant to protect against magic. I check it against my Grass Crest Shield, and find that it's the same weight, and overall marginally superior. I'll miss the invigorating properties of the Grass Crest Shield, but I swap it out; this is a valuable weapon.

That battle cost me all of my Estus, but I'm so close now, and there are only some minor Hollows in my way. Then again, I don't think either of the foes I've just defeated will revive if I use the bonfire, so in the end, I decide to go back and refill my Estus Flask before continuing up the stairs to the ramparts. When I'm heading forward again, I stop at the hole in the wall that boulder caused long ago; inside, I can still see the bed of bricks, faintly illuminated by daylight, that was my rescuer's deathbed. I'm not sad so much as unnerved. How soon things can change when you're Undead…

I shrug the thought off and continue upwards. Somehow, that same Hollow decided to roll the boulder all the way back up the stairs, just so it could roll it down again at me now, and it does. The blow isn't nearly as hard as it was the first time, but I'm still annoyed; I cut it down and carry on.

Outside, the Hollows haven't changed, except for seeming a bit tougher. Without much trouble, I get to the room with the locked gate. When I enter the room, I discover that there are now two Hollow soldiers to get past, one with a sword, one with a spear. I defeat the one with the sword first, then face off with the one with the spear - I intend to parry the spear-wielder, but my timing is slightly off, and this thing is much stronger than before; with two stabs from the spear, I'm dead. Getting angry again, I climb back up.

When I reach the two Hollow soldiers again, I recover my lost power, then parry and riposte both of them without a scratch. At last, I'm at the locked gate. Following my hunch, I try the key I found on the corpse on the roof of the Firelink Shrine, and lo and behold, it works. Beyond it is only the stairs up to the outside balcony on the other side of the inside balcony, the ones that have crumbled far beyond use, but on this half of the stairs is a corpse wearing a rusted iron ring that is very heavy and faintly stained with blood. I'm not sure what use this has, but I'm sure enough that there is one, so I take it.

At last, there's nothing left to do except fight the demon down below. I think about it long and hard, and finally, begrudgingly, decide to wear my chain link armor - movement is important in fights like that, it was my clunky armor that made me too slow to dodge it. Before I do that, though, I return to the bonfire in the open courtyard. I've gathered plenty of souls, but they turn out to just barely not be enough; it's better to use them now than lose them fighting that demon, so I kill the Hollows in the closed courtyard a couple of times until I have what I need. Then I use them, change, and go to where I know the hole is to fight the demon.

The fight goes better - I'm able to dodge the thing's attacks. My sword, however, barely scratches it. Given this, I decide to use both hands, but another problem presents itself: its blast ability. This, I have no means of defending myself from, and two blasts kill me. Still, I'm determined to do this before I go; I won't leave without that monster's souls. I switch to my Grass Crest Shield so that its invigorating properties will aid me, then put it on my back to use my sword with both hands - I'm going to keep trying until I find a way to get around those blasts. Reviewing my armor, I find that the chain link set is more useful against fire in the gloves and leggings, but my reinforced chestplate is far superior to anything else I have. I swap it out again, but this change puts more weight on me, drastically more, and I can't move freely. This _one_ piece of armor! Annoyed, I switch it back; I actually attract the attention of a couple of Hollows outside while I do this, and I have to go back to the bonfire to restore myself so I can be at my best when fighting the demon.

When I drop down, my sword in two hands, I forget that I can dodge but not block, and the demon kills me with a single strike. Okay, simple mistake, I won't make it again. The next time, I'm faster, but I don't take time to heal myself from my fall, and one blast of fire kills me. And that's when I'm forced to face it: I am not strong enough to face this monster. She would carry on fighting anyway, but I'm smarter than her; I swear revenge, but for now, I can only return to Firelink Shrine, changing back into my preferred armor and drawing the Crest Shield again. Luckily, the unstable time flow leaves the power I lost to the demon up here instead of down there, so I can recover it, and I do. The Hollows on the way don't bother me all that much; when I reach the nest, I curl up like a ball, and the raven comes and carries me away.


	11. Chapter 10

I'm kind of used to being Hollowed again by now now, and on the way back, I decide to rest at the Firelink Shrine bonfire, then head back to the Darkroot Garden to fight the butterfly again. First, I have to climb down the ruins back to the ground, and I have to use some Estus to heal myself enough to be sure that I can reach the ground safely, but with some maneuvering, I manage without much injury.

All the way up at the bonfire near Andre, I swap out my armor so I can run past the headless demon - and really, the fact that I can do nothing against this creature should have been some clue that I wouldn't have been able to fight the demon in the Asylum, considering how much stronger everything else in the Asylum had become. Without a word, I pass the smith, and run through the demon's lair; on the way, the monster manages to get one diving strike on me, but it's nothing Estus can't fix. Single-mindedly, I head straight for the forest bonfire; when I get there, I rest only a moment before continuing on; I know I'll have to run past the golem at the castle entrance, but I decide to deal with that when I come to it.

On the way, two of the plant creatures have clumps of purple moss growing on them, moss I've heard is used as an antidote to poison; I take them gratefully, but don't lose focus on my task. When I pass the golem, I head straight for Beatrice's sign, but it isn't there - I cut down the hedge, see nothing, and run up the stairs knowing I don't have time to question it. But as I run, I think, why can't I summon her this time? Is it because I already did once? Or is it perhaps…because I'm Hollow?

I get to the wall of white light and pass through it. Too late, I realize I forgot to get my catalyst ready - I could have put it in a place that would have given me quick access, though it would have weighed me down slightly, but I forgot to do so. There's no time for me to lament my mistake, though, before the Moonlight Butterfly is upon me.

At least I know its moves now, and since I'm bearing the Crest Shield, it hurts me less this time. Also, I somehow manage to dodge the green tracking spheres, even though I'm clunky and can't manage an elegant roll; looking back, I wonder if this might have actually helped me, since it kept me low to the ground longer. The butterfly also occasionally shoots a beam across the narrow bridge on which I'm standing; this, too, I'm able to successfully dodge, also probably all the more effectively for not being able to get back to my feet more quickly. Since I can't attack it while it's flying out of the reach of my sword, I wait until it lands on the side of the parapet to drink nectar from the glowing flowers that grow here and there - for that's what it does when it lands - then switch to wielding my sword two-handed and hitting it with everything I have. It takes a few drinks of Estus and a lot of luck, but eventually, I kill it. The Moonlight Butterfly leaves behind its soul - a golden, shimmering force that tells me a story, its name and the fact that it was created by Seath the Scaleless. It will have more uses than just souls, I can tell, and besides, I got enough souls from the butterfly fresh. I'm also given a black Humanity sprite, which I tuck away to be used when next I'm at a bonfire instead of absorbing right away, just in case.

Now the doorway on the other end of the bridge is clear, and I go to investigate it. Inside is an empty square room with yet more stairs, almost identical to the ones I took to get up here. Resignedly, I climb. At the top, I'm on the very rooftop of what appears to be the tallest tower of the ruins; I look around and see, to my surprise, a smithery much like Andre's. I remember what he said about people coming here seeking divine weapons, but before I can hope that this is what I've found, I notice the figure kneeling in the midst of the supplies. It's a muscular man, apparently turned to stone - dead, in any case, that much is clear. He's hunched over something, and I pry his possessions loose from his stiff grasp; his treasures are a key, a Homeward Bone…and a burning white ember. Embers are used for smithing, I know, and this beautiful little flame is obviously very special. Looking around, I find that there's nothing else up here; this is where the trail ends, save for the more open area down below that I know I'm not ready to explore. I already had some Homeward Bones, but the fact that I found another one here doesn't hurt; I use it to return to the forest bonfire.

The first thing I do when I get back is revive myself to human form; it's such a relief, to be full of life again. Only after I've done that do I use the souls I've gathered to strengthen myself; then it's time to return to Andre. On the way back, it occurs to me that using my sword with both hands is probably a much more effective way of fighting off the plant monsters; once I start doing this, they cause me no more trouble. One of them carries a clump of bloodred moss, and another carries a clump of purple moss; I'm grateful for both. I do of course have to change into my chain link armor to run past the headless demon, but then I'm at Andre's smith.

"My, that's a rare ember you have there," he comments as I approach with the little flame I found at the top of the tower. "I've seen one of those before…It's the ember of a divine blacksmith. Might you consider leaving that with me? I could produce divine weapons with a flame such as that."

Seeing no reason why not to, so I smile and hand it over.

"Well, thank you, for that," he says, taking it and stowing it away. "You've made a fine choice. You'll soon see!"

"Can you use it to modify a weapon for me now?" I ask.

He shakes his head. "None of your weapons are ready yet."

With a sigh, I absentmindedly start walking away without bidding goodbye.

"Oi!" he calls. "Where're you off to?"

Startled, I jog back over to him.

"What's going on with you, eh?" he asks. "I thought you'd gone Hollow for a moment there!" He chuckles.

"Sorry," I say, "I was just…lost in my thoughts." I have him repair my equipment - a lot of it is getting pretty battered - and then I bid him a proper farewell. He replies in turn, and I go upstairs to the bonfire, proud of my victory.

So now I have a key, but I don't know where to use it. I've exhausted most of the Darkroot Garden, except for that one space…and I also haven't explored down among the cliff ledges yet. I deliberate for a short while, then decide to return to the lower Undead Burg - I've hardly looked around there at all.

On the way back, I see the stairs inside the tower that I never climbed just outside the Undead Parish. I've fought quite a few monsters and won, so I climb them now to see what lies at the top. The answer, as it turns out, is a black knight. It has a huge sword that's more like a club than anything, and in the tiny, tiny space of the roof, there's hardly anywhere to maneuver; I die quickly. Just like that, I'm Hollow again. Well, I have nothing to lose now, so I decide to go back and try again; this time, once I'm there, I try using the stairs to my advantage. Unfortunately, while I have more space to move backwards, the enclosed space still hinders my ability to maneuver, and though I last longer - and manage to recover the souls I've lost - I die. I decide to leave that for later and go back to my original goal.

Heading back this time, I try to dodge too many of the Hollows without fighting them, and they kill me, costing me all the souls I had the last time I died to the black knight; I make a mental note about it and try again. This time, I make it, and soon come to the dank room full of undead rats. They manage to completely poison me, but this time, I have the clumps of purple moss I found in the Darkroot Garden, and when they're all dead, I heal myself. Maybe I should return to the Darkroot Garden just for those at some point.

I take the shortcut back to the bonfire in the middle of Undead Burg. At first, I intend to run across the bridge guarded by the drake to get to the passage to the lower area, but when I descend to reach the bonfire, I remember I opened a much easier shortcut just across a bridge down here, so I take that route instead. The Hollows around here are definitely much weaker compared to me than they used to be - I don't even have to parry to get the overkill bonus, just knock them off-balance by blocking them with my shield.

Down the many stairs I go. Near the bottom, I slightly overestimate how prepared I am for the lizard-dogs, but only get a few scratches for it. Now I'm back on the street, and to start, I decide to go the way I was headed when I found Griggs. I find some steps, a short bridge, and then a weird back alley full of Hollows - weak, ragged Hollows that my sword obliterates with single swings. Back here, I find a corpse with a Twin Humanities - I take this gratefully, making a mental note to use it the moment I reach a bonfire. The Hollows hurt me, but I drink Estus once they're all gone, and I'm alright. There doesn't appear to be anything else back here - the one door is thoroughly boarded up, and a swing from my sword proves it's not an illusion. This is a dead end. With only one way left to go, I climb out and start walking down the street the other way.

Doors with no handles lining both sides of the street make me uneasy as I progress, and I slow down, my shield raised, waiting for an ambush. Soon after, it comes - one door ahead of me and two behind me open at once, revealing bandits with sabers. I start with the one in front of me, and chaos ensues; the fight ends up getting squeezed into the tiny stone room one of them was waiting in, after one of them parries and ripostes me and kicks me inside. In here, I manage to drink some Estus and fight back, and shortly after, all three are dead.

The way clear, I look around. All of the doors they were hiding behind are open now, and I decide to go back and search the other two. One of the little buildings is empty, but the other contains a corpse carrying a mail-breaker, a sword meant for stabbing and not slashing. It's light as a feather, but also much weaker, and I put it away with a sigh; I'm really starting to lose hope in finding a better weapon I'm even capable of wielding, let alone one that's lighter than my broadsword.

Out on the street again, I continue on. Some stairs lead to a boarded-up door, and then the path between buildings narrows. Soon, I see grass. A lizard-dog surprises me, but I kill it without much trouble once I know it's there. The moment I step on the grass, three doors ahead of me burst open, and another trio of bandits comes out. These I manage to get clustered together, and though they manage to land a couple of hits on me, I cut them down. In one of the rooms they were hiding inside, I find a corpse with a full set of black leather armor including a thief mask, as well as a target shield; I check the armor, hoping it can compare to mine, but though it's lighter and more resistant to elements, my armor is still vastly superior.

Back at the start of the grassy place, a narrow passage to nowhere that I noticed but didn't explore before contains a large barrel holding a corpse. I break the barrel to get to the corpse, and out of nowhere, another lizard-dog attacks me from behind - I kill it quickly, then check the body I just found; it carries a smallish soulmass. Then I carry on, and soon come to a door blocked by white light. It's been a long time since I last saw a bonfire, and some stairs to my right leading down are tempting; I take the stairs, deciding to check the light barrier another time. At the bottom of the staircase, a faint scream from her through my pendant tells me to check around the left-hand corner, preventing a bandit from surprising me; I kill it, and another that attacks me from ahead, and then I'm down in a strange street that curves slightly, as though around a vast tower. A door has two sets of stairs leading to it, one from either side, like a pyramid, but I walk past these first; two torches mark a door that is locked, and just behind a metal fence that ends the road is a corpse with another smallish soulmass. The stairs are the only other way to go, so I climb them, and find myself in a tower. Halfway up the spiral staircase, a ragged hollow stands on a platform and shoots arrows at me with its bow; I cut it down with complete and total ease, then climb the rest of the way up. At the top, a dark passage leads to a narrow waterway, and to my right is a grate behind which is…an Undead. She appears Hollow, but when I turn to her, she speaks.

"Hmm, you still have your senses about you?" she says, almost too quietly to hear. "Then why won't you buy some of my moss? I need your souls!" She chuckles eerily.

"Let's see what you have," I say, curious. She shows me, and there's purple and bloodred moss, as well as blooming purple moss used for more vicious forms of poison. Along with that, she seems mostly versed in poisonous things, with poison throwing knives and poison resin to apply to weapons. She also sells charcoal resin to add fire to weapons, as well as alluring skulls, Homeward Bones, and cursed mummified arms like the ones I took from the corpse in New Londo Ruins. She has a Purging Stone at a high price, warm shimmering pebbles that can be used to mark a path, and one Humanity sprite that I can't afford right now. Apart from that, she has arrows and bolts with poison and fire, and in different sizes. In short, nothing I need.

Still, I'm curious about her. "What are you doing in a place like this?" I ask - it seems like a dank sewer drain and nothing more.

But she smiles. "This is a wonderful place, don't you think?" she replies cheerfully. "We have water, moss, moisture, these nice iron bars…I like it here, I really do. Nothing good ever happened to me in life. But now that I'm Undead, I've never been happier!" She pauses, then adds, "You've come to this place at a bad time. Nothing here but Hollows, except myself, of course. You're Undead too, right? Then be careful!" She chuckles.

"Here?" I repeat.

"Ah, go down along the side to reach the depths of the Undead Burg," she instructs me. "Only unkempt crooks and liars to be found there. Hardly a place for a lady like myself! But who knows, maybe you'd fit right in?" She cackles.

I roll my eyes. "You're not the first Hollowed merchant I've heard say that Undeath was the best thing that ever happened to them," I mutter; "I can't imagine why." She has nothing I need, so I bid her farewell without buying anything.

She scowls. "Drat," she spits. "What a humdrum lad you are."

With a shrug, I turn away. The drain continues for quite a ways, but eventually, I come to a gate that's locked from this side. When I open it, and see a doorway directly to my right, I realize I've come back around to Firelink Shrine; I decide to stop down there to rest, restore my Hollowed body with the Twin Humanities, and reconsider my options.


	12. Chapter 11

I'm really not sure what to do now. There's the one wall of white light I found, but she's begging me, through the flames, not to try yet. I've exhausted most other routes, and all that seems to remain at first is in the Darkroot Garden, with monsters I have no way of fending off now. There's the Catacombs, but I don't have a divine weapon; there's the Northern Undead Asylum, but I doubt I'm strong enough to fight that demon yet; and there's the ruins down below. The ruins…it occurs to me that I still haven't seen what lies there. I decide to try that.

Down below, I'm surprised again at the number of ragged, crestfallen Hollows sitting and standing around - how wretched of a place could this be? When I reach the rotting wooden bridge, it's time to find out. For some reason, the whole place is flooded, and when I reach a crumbled tower from which another set of old wooden planks leads forward, the water comes up to the very bottom of the bridge; once I get to the ruins proper, I see that water covers the ground. Then a ghost appears, a skeleton in a white dress and hood.

Right away, I raise my shield, but the ghost, which carries a blade in each hand, stabs at me, and the one stab passes right through the shield into my flesh. Ghosts are cursed beings, and not solid; I've heard that only one who is also cursed, or wields a curse power somehow, can fight them. Recognizing that I'm helpless right now, I run back across the bridge, stopping at the crumbled tower halfway to take a swig from my Estus Flask. Okay, so I need a curse. A curse…can be taken from the body of one who dies of a curse. I reach into my bag and take out one of the mummified arms I found not far from here so long ago; I take it in both of my hands and squeeze it, until the energy of the curse pours through my armor and skin into my body. It doesn't hurt me, but now I'm temporarily a transient being. Thus prepared, I go back to fight the ghost.

The first thing it does when I see it again is extend tendrils from its ragged sleeves carrying its two blades; I try to back away, but only get far enough to be caught by the blades from behind, and the ghost catches me. It pulls itself over to me, slashes my throat with its weapons, and knocks me to the ground; luckily, I'm far from dead. As this is happening, another ghost joins the first. When I finally manage to get to my feet, I swing my sword at them, and with the power of the dead man's curse behind my hand, the metal connects. Weird whispered gasps echo through the air each time I land a blow on them; they manage to hit me a few more times, until eventually, they're both banished.

Catching my breath, I take a drink from my Estus Flask; the frigid water halfway up my shins chills me through my boots with more than just cold. Those ghosts were strong, and there are bound to be more throughout this place. After a minute's hesitation, I splash my way over to some stairs leading up to drier portions of the ruins. At the top, I find one ghost, kill it, find a second, and kill it too. A stone bridge leads into an ancient castle, but I know I'm not strong enough to face much more than what I've already found - for now, this is as far as I go. Instead, I turn around and start looking back down in the area covered in water.

In a pot behind a crumbling wall, I find a corpse. This one, too, has died of a curse, and I take its glowing, mummified arms out of necessity. There really isn't much else around, though I try to be thorough. The curse power I drew from the one arm wears off while I look; I use the other one I took from the first corpse as soon as I notice this, just to be safe. Soon after, among some ruins that have endured the ages better than much of the rest of the immediate area, I find a narrow, submerged bridge across the deep water into the crumbling remains of a distant tower; in the tower, I can just make out a bright glow. Cautiously, I begin to step onto the hidden wooden planks.

Suddenly, _three_ ghosts rise from the water, including one right where I'm standing; I quickly retreat back into area where I can move around, and they drift after me. Fighting all three of them at once is hectic, and I work to make sure my back isn't to any of them and that I swing at them when they're clustered together; even with all my caution, they strike me, and one even catches me in its grip like the first ghost I fought did. Twice, I have to gamble on them being slow enough to give me time to take a drink from my Estus Flask, and there's a point when only my blue tearstone ring saves me - I can hardly back away from them, even keep myself oriented, due to the rubble and the ancient remains of walls sticking up here and there in this flooded space. But at last, though it's close, I defeat them. I take a minute to catch my breath and take another drink of Estus, and then I head back to the bridge, knowing now that something good must lie across it.

It's a risky balancing act, considering the wooden bridge itself is slippery with wet rot and obscured by water, but I make it. The glow turns out to be coming from a corpse, and when I take it, it proves to be a Fire Keeper Soul - I can take it right back up the lift and have that Fire Keeper use it to strengthen my Estus Flask. Glad I took the risk, I tuck it away, then carefully make my way back up to the Firelink Shrine.

Back up in the daylight, I put away my sword and shield and remove my helm before approaching the woman behind the bars. The Fire Keeper takes the soul I found and my Flask without a word, and combines them; I nod my thanks, then turn around. As I turn, I notice Knight Lautrec, still sitting where he is, and I approach and greet him.

"Well, where have you been?" he asks. "I am glad to see you're safe."

"Thank you," is all I can think to say in response, and I wonder about my misgivings about him. "I'm glad to see you're well, too."

He nods. "Have you ever heard of Trusty Patches?" he asks abruptly. "If ever a man has rubbed me up the wrong way, ugh. If he ever comes around here again, I swear, I'll have his hide!"

Trusty Patches. I'll remember that name. I nod my thanks for the tip and turn to go.

At the bonfire, I strengthen myself with the souls I've gathered, and check the New Londo Ruins off my mental checklist of places I might be able to go; I want to return to the forest now, maybe gather some more moss, and decide to do so, standing and putting my helm back on. On the way, I make sure my catalyst is ready to use - if firebombs worked against those statues, Soul Arrows surely will. When I reach Andre after checking myself in at the bonfire, I momentarily debate using the souls I've gathered to reinforce something of mine, but I still hope to find better armor and a better weapon, and I won't get any such thing if I strengthen the ones I have; I pass him without a word, putting on my chain link armor to dodge the headless demon.

Back by the door sealed with magic, I take a breath at the bonfire. Getting here, I got one more of both bloodred and purple moss clumps, and the area ahead is the last place I have to conquer. Even counting my days before Undeath, I haven't ever used magic before. This particular spell, the only one I have, can be cast thirty times before needing to be recharged at a bonfire; will that be enough for whatever golems I find, or even for one golem? I only take a few moments to worry before I stand and keep going.

The three plant monsters on the way are still a nuisance, and when I fight them, the increased potency of my Estus Flask is very evident. When I get to a golem lying on the ground that I can see clearly, I slowly inch towards it until it registers my presence and begins to stand, then put away my sword and take out my catalyst; I cast a Soul Arrow at it, but I've forgotten yet again how fast they move, and while the spell hits the golem, the golem also hits me, and hard. Quickly, I return to my old standby of backing away when I can, this time firing Soul Arrows when I think I have a chance; these seem to do about as much damage as the firebombs did, and take about as much time to use. Back up, fire, back up, fire, again and again…but before too long, the golem stops, then slowly raises its hands, light gathering around it. Thinking I'm taking advantage, I fire two Soul Arrows during this process, but then it casts a Miracle that traps me in a spellbinding circle, halving my already-low speed. Desperately, I hold my shield up and try to withstand its attacks while I wait for the magic to wear off; by some miracle, whenever it knocks my shield out of place - whether it takes one or two strikes - it takes a moment before attacking me again, enough time for me to recover. Once the spell releases, I continue backing up, heading up the path I came down, occasionally backing into a wall. At one point, my blue tearstone ring activates, and again, I'm grateful for the increased potency of my Flask. When at last it falls, I find it took exactly one-half of the uses this spell has to defeat it, which means I can kill one more, and that's it.

I swap my catalyst back out for my sword and head down again, returning to where the golem was before proceeding slowly. Through the trees, I can see another golem, slightly to the right of a glowing flower that stands randomly in the middle of this grove. Something tells me to keep my sword out as I cautiously approach. Once I'm very close, I can see that there are actually two golems lying here, but behind them, I can see a corpse…Perhaps running, not fighting, is the answer here, and I swap out my knight armor for my chain armor before simply dashing through. The golems take a little while to rise, but while they do, a bunch of plant monsters jump out of the dirt along with them, and they're fast. Being closer to my goal than the exit, I sprint over, strip the body of the armor it's wearing, then start running. As I dash through the trees, I notice another golem too late, but I turn and run away before I see it stand; I find the path back up to the bonfire and run up it, then turn around when I'm more than halfway there. Four plant monsters are following me, but I don't see any of the golems; four monsters are difficult to contend with no what they are, but with these bottlenecked in the narrow passage, I manage to cut them all down. One of them bears a bloodred moss clump; I take it, then return to the bonfire and sit down, allowing everything to be reset so I know I'm safe.

Given room to breathe, I stand up and look at the armor I just pillaged. It appears to be the armor of an elite knight of Astora, but when I compare it against my own armor, it proves to be stronger (except for the torso armor of mine that's reinforced) but also heavier. If I'm going to be burdened, though, I might as well be safer for it, so I swap out the leggings and gauntlets, as this change still does only a small amount of damage. All the same, even that little bit of increased weight is the opposite of what I really need, increased protection or no.

Even from my brief run, I could tell there's nothing else for me in there. I head back to the fork in the road; on the way, plant monsters once again give me one of each bloodred and purple moss clumps. Then I carefully navigate my way back down the slippery slopes - I might as well, since I'm here. When I see the crystal lizard, I try to attack it, but I miss, and then it's gone. As I head down for the area I didn't inspect before, I slip off the edge of one of the ledges, and only catch myself after I slide past another and onto a third - I barely manage to land on my feet, and though I hit the ground hard, it's probably not as hard as I would have in less-sturdy boots. Then I'm there, and I see trees up ahead, and in the distance, the tower of a castle. The woods, or the castle? I'm not sure which to explore first, so I walk forward in an ambiguous direction to see which one proves more interesting.

The trees grow in a very hilly terrain, and through them, I think I can see a figure made of crystal. Off in the far distance, the faintest shadow of movement taunts my vision, but I can't quite tell if it's real or just the mist. I decide to go after the crystal golem. Barely do I proceed before I count a second, a third, and a fourth of the crystal creatures. Still, now I'm all the more curious, and I head for the nearest one.

These things turn out to be as slow as golems ought to be. A second one notices me before I even land a single strike on the first one, though, and I end up backing away from both of them, baiting them to see what they can do. They're blue, and have no faces, just huge crystals embedded in the top of their crystalline bodies; their arms and legs are stubby, lacking fingers or toes. They seem to like striking with their arms, either one or both, but sometimes, they swing one arm and a huge, spiky crystal club swings with them, only to disappear when the strike is done. At one point, one of them raises its stubby arms and slams them both into the ground, causing crystal shards to sprout up in a radius around it. Also, at some point, I think I see splashing somewhere in the background, but I pay it no mind. When I've backed up a certain distance, I seem to reach a point where one of them is too far from its territory to care, while the other - the first one I went for - isn't; this makes the fight a bit easier, and eventually, the strikes from my sword make it disintegrate.

One down, I go back to fight the other; I'll bait the third and fourth at some point. As I reach a hill that blocks the far end of the space, I hear the sound of some things pounding repeatedly against the other side; I stand still for a minute, then see one of the things in question pass by me: a missile of water. The golem I'm aiming for has already locked on to me, so I lead it away from whatever's causing this; we fight as normal, but soon get interrupted when some water missiles pierce the haze and knock us both down - I get hurt, and the golem disintegrates. All but alarmed, I retreat and head to the side again, take a swig of Estus, then jog across to the side where the other two golems are - I'm not done here yet.

On the way, I find a corpse carrying a large soulmass - not the biggest I've seen, but close. I bait the third golem without attracting the attention of the fourth, then lure it back away; some water missiles hit the ground nearby at first, but miss both of us. This fight is simple, not too difficult, and provides more insight on what these crystal beasts can do. Eventually, the thing falls, leaving me with one more, and the mystery of whatever's shooting water around. I start to lure the fourth, and soon realize there's no cover from the water missiles here, so I keep the golem between me and whatever's shooting, hoping one of the missiles will hit it; sure enough, one quickly does, and it goes down. Trying to figure out how best to discover what's causing this, I hide among the trees for shelter while I think, but after a few misses, the water shots hit me. Quickly, I back up even further and duck behind a rock, and continue to consider my options. Does water count as physical, or elemental? If the latter, I could change into the black leather suit I found down in the lower Undead Burg, but if I'm wrong, whatever I'm up against will definitely kill me. After deliberating for a moment longer, I decide to risk it.

I'm wrong. I run close, hoping to get lucky, and when I get hit, it hurts. Realizing my mistake too late, I try to retreat, but another missile catches me from behind, and I die.

Just like that, I wake up back at the bonfire by the door sealed with magic, Hollow again - there's a bit of humanity in the power the Darksign left behind when it revived me, but I'll have to get to it; I am not prepared to see whatever it is that has power over water down there, I accept that now. That's not all there is down there, though, so I head back down to recover what I lost and inspect the castle. Two clumps of purple moss and one of bloodred moss come from the plant monsters along the way; I change out of my heavier armor to try and catch the crystal lizard, but though I have a bit more time, I fail to line up my strike properly, and I miss.

When I get back down to the basin, I decide to use my binoculars to see if I can make out whatever monster killed me last time. It's far off, and at first I don't believe my eyes, but after a minute of observing the thrashing, snaky heads, I'm sure: It's a hydra. A _hydra_! No wonder it's so powerful - hydras are essentially the drakes of water. That must be a lake it's sitting in. Still, I'm not going to fight it right now anyway, so I take a breath and get ready to run out and grab my lost power. A golem notices me while I try to see where my death spot is, and I back up to fight it; it's no real challenge, though I do nearly slip and fall off a cliff at one point. At last, I go, barely glimpsing my death spot behind a log out in the middle of the whole area; I run there, getting grazed by one water missile just doing that but catching it on my shield without much trouble. By the time I get there, all three remaining crystal golems see me and virtually surround me, and for a minute, I don't think I'll get a chance to reclaim the strength I lost. Somehow, though, I do, and then I run, and while one water missile grazes me, the others hit the golems, killing two; the last one, when I finally turn around to face it, is wounded as well. Then, at last, I have everything, and am safely out of the hydra's range.

Finally, I walk up to the tower to see what's there. Stone steps lead up to a doorway that seems to be holding back a bright light. The door is locked, but I try my various keys on it, and find that the key I took from the dead blacksmith up above is the one that goes here. Inside, it's actually dark, though two torches flank the doorway; but my eyes don't miss the glimpse of the edge of a weapon around the right-hand corner. Something's waiting for me in here, something I'm not sure I'm ready to face just yet; I decide to run for the left, and hope that maybe the stairs begin there. They do, thankfully, but out of the corner of my eye, I see what looks like a rather hefty black knight carrying an enormous club.

Without stopping to take a closer look, I run up the stairs, one floor, two floors, _three_ floors - this is a tall tower! At one point, it almost catches up to me, and the fact that I have to use the key again when I get to the top makes it perilously close. Once I get the door open, I see another doorway on the other side of the room, blocked by a single Hollow knight; it runs for me, and I dodge around it and out the door, and down some stairs. When I turn around, I see both the Hollow soldier and the hefty black knight still pursuing me, but as I run to the bottom of the stairs, I see another Hollow soldier wielding a spear. Suddenly, in the midst of this chaos, I register that this is the outside of the tower that came before the tauros demon. I run past the other Hollows towards the place where she once fought her first black knight for the blue tearstone ring, but go into the small watchtower before I actually get there, knowing a crossbow-shooting Hollow is at the top and firebomb-throwing Hollows are just ahead. In here, I manage to get all my pursuers trapped in a bottleneck (the black knight is not among them), and with this, I'm able to kill them without much difficulty. I climb to the top to kill the Hollow with a crossbow, run out and around the door I opened to kill the Hollow hanging back with firebombs, and then, at last, I get a chance to catch my breath and process what's going on.

I've opened up a shortcut between Undead Burg and the Darkroot Garden. Unfortunately, it seems to be guarded by a black knight that will not be toppled easily, and opens to a place on the edge of the territory of a hydra. Right now, I can head back to a bonfire not far from the Firelink Shrine, and can probably even get past it without stopping at it…I decide to do that - I want to get back to the center of it all, it feels safer than anything else, and once I make it there, I can decide on my next move.

One of the Hollows on the way leaves me with a firebomb, and another leaves me with two. When I finally get back to the bonfire at Firelink Shrine, I revive my Hollowed body, strengthen myself, and at last, I rest. It's been too long since I last lay down by a fire and just felt her near me. I'm exhausted.


	13. Chapter 12

I wake, as always, in the warmth of her presence. But as I come to this time, I start to wonder what it is I'm actually doing. I'm trying to reach a second Bell of Awakening and ring it, yes, but what for? Where is this leading? What am I doing? Why am I not just Hollow already?

The pendant warms against my chest, and I hear her tell me through the fire that it's okay. Why _not_ do what I'm doing? What else am I going to do? My only other option is to sit here and rot, and there's no way I'd do that. And she's right. I clasp my hand around my pendant and smile, grateful that she's with me no matter what.

Revitalized, I stand. The best thing to do right now is traverse the wall of white light I saw in the lower Undead Burg - it's the only thing I don't know, so if nothing else, I need to discover what awaits me. Up the stairs, through the waterway, down the stairs, down more stairs, bandits, up stairs, lizard-dogs, more stairs, door. The trip only costs me one swig of Estus, and I'm there. Before I walk through, I take one moment to wish I had a weapon I liked better, one that was easier to use, but there's nothing for it now; I traverse the white light.

I can barely even see what's going on - there's a lizard-dog and a creature with enormous machetes, but it's impossible to tell what's happening in the enclosed space I've come to. I'm not even sure what it is that hits me when I die.

Just like that, I'm back at the Firelink Shrine. I need something more than what I have…and right now, the only place I might be able to get something like that is Andre's forge - I need to gather souls and use them to reinforce my blade and armor. Never mind that I want better equipment, if I find something I like better I can reinforce it until it's better than whatever I'm left with; right now, I just need souls. _Lots_ of souls.

To this end, I decide to take the longest route possible to Andre's forge, and overkill everything I can on the way, barely even minding the fact that I'm Hollowed. When I pass through the tower, I momentarily consider going back down for the black knight, but decide against it; same for the other tower with a black knight I haven't fought yet at the top. I'm not strong enough to do such things, that's why I need Andre's help.

It takes all ten swallows of Estus to sustain me to Andre's forge, but along the way, one Hollow drops a shard of titanite for me, which will save me 800 souls. I have quite a supply by the time I reach Andre, and I even have that large soulmass from earlier that I only now use, leaving me with just barely too few souls to strengthen myself, but more than enough to reinforce my weapons and armor.

When I get there, the first thing I do is buy five more shards of titanite. I ask him to reinforce my Crest Shield, but it's a special sort of shield that requires twinkling titanite, of which I've already used my entire supply; I think of the crystal lizard I still haven't killed and accept this. I'm still wary of reinforcing my armor when I have hope of finding better armor, so I put everything I have into my sword; I end up needing to buy one more shard of titanite, but in the end, I strengthen my broadsword as far as it can be reinforced without special materials. With it being thus strengthened, I ask if it can be turned into a divine broadsword - then maybe I could go into the Catacombs and see what I might find there - but I need a green shard of titanite for this, and I have no idea where to find that. Besides, I've used all my souls doing this; I thank him and go.

The next thing I focus on is catching that crystal lizard. I change into my chain mail to run past the headless demon - which, surely, I'll be able to fight soon - and then head into the forest, going out of my way to stop at the bonfire by the sealed door to gather more Estus. The plant monsters on the way go down so much more quickly, and I'm very glad I put everything I had into strengthening this sword…Maybe this _will_ turn out to be the best weapon for me. Purple and bloodred moss clumps, too, are welcome bounty.

Of course, I have to change into my lightest pieces of armor to chase down the lizard; I don't bother with a matching outfit, I just choose the lightest of everything I have. This actually turns out to be a sorcerer's cloak and gloves and a ragged waistcloth I took from a Hollow warrior - a ridiculous outfit, but if means I'll catch that lizard, I can wear it for a little while. And it works! At last, I kill the crystal lizard, and get two chunks of twinkling titanite and one chunk of regular titanite for my efforts. Now I have the means to reinforce my Crest Shield, and I go back to do so - I could also reinforce my gargoyle helm, but I decide this shield is the one piece of equipment I have that I feel confident I will never change out, so I'll go with that. On the way back this time, after I change back into my proper armor, I decide to try my hand at the headless demon below Andre's forge, too - maybe I'm getting cocky, but it's near enough to the forge that I'm not worried about losing anything if I fail. So, this time, as I go in, I don't change to my chain link armor.

Lightning misses me at the start, and throughout the fight, I try to stay on the left side of its back, away from its weapon and in a place it seems to be unable to hit me. When I get in that position and it realizes it can't hit me, it jumps up, more often than not slamming back down into the ground weapon-first, and when this hits me, it knocks me down. Sometimes it swings and disarms me, but doesn't swing again; other times, it manages to swing twice, but I'm able to keep my shield up for both strikes. All the while, I just focus on riding its left back and striking it. It takes only three drinks of Estus total, and then, it disintegrates, leaving behind a strange chunk of titanite that's different from normal titanite somehow.

Flush with my victory, I return to Andre, and have him use the twinkling titanite to reinforce my shield. This requires a _lot_ of souls, though, and the bounty from my victory over the headless demon is only enough for one upgrade; I run outside and kill some Hollows to make up the difference. With my new, strong sword, combined with parrying and riposting, I'm able to get an overkill bonus on even the strongest Hollow knights, and I run back soon and finish the job, quickly resting at the bonfire on the way.

"You can forge armor just like you do weapons," Andre reminds me. "Forging armor is even easier than forging weapons. Whether you forge armor or weapons first? Well that's up to you. But nobody wants to see you go Hollow. So, whatever you do, you'd better do it well." He chuckles again.

"Yes, I know," I say, "but I don't want to forge armor I won't use later." I bid him farewell, he does the same, and I leave.

The fact that I'm stronger now is good, but I wonder if I can somehow get stronger still. With my options so limited, though, I soon decide that the only way to do that is gather souls with which to strengthen my own body, maybe kill a black knight or two; to this end, I decide to try my hand against the knight at the top of the nearer tower again. I waste a lot of Estus in what nearly turns out to be a vain attempt at parrying and riposting a Hollow knight on the way there, so I have to turn back once before I actually make it to the tower, but the souls make it worth it.

Climbing the tower at last, I slow down as I reach the top, my shield raised. Even with a stronger sword, I know this won't be easy. These stairs are far too narrow, so I try to lure it out of the tower; this works, but the lack of height advantage quickly proves too much. The monster's sword is impossibly strong, and my shield simply cannot block it; the only thing I can do is try to dodge, but the weapon also has a long reach, and the knight can move it faster than the mace-wielding knight fought. My sword _does_ damage it well when it hits, though, so I know that with a little luck, this _is_ possible. Even though I ultimately die, if anything, I'm encouraged. It's time for this knight to fall.

On the way back, I get careless, and a random Hollow downs me. This, too, doesn't bother me all that much - I didn't lose much, and what I did lose, I got from coming up here in the first place. Right now, the only thing that concerns me is slaying this one black knight.

It takes two drinks of Estus to get me at full health when I do finally reach the knight's tower again. This time, I know its battle strategies a bit better, so I'm not so sure this won't be the last try. It doesn't start off well, though - it notices me climbing the tower, and swings its enormous blade down on my head full force before my head even clears the top of the stairs. That sword is powerful beyond words, frighteningly so, as every time it manages to hit me with that strike, it takes just a little less than half the vitality I have in me. I'm out of Estus around the time we get to the bottom of the stairs; but then, I start to get more cautious. There's this one clumsy move it does sometimes that I know it can't attack immediately after: when it puts all its strength into dragging the sword across the ground and up over in an arc as it turns around, putting a lot of momentum into the swing; I hold far back and only strike when it does this, and I chip its health down to well below what I myself have left even without Estus. The next time it tries something, though it's not that particular move, I swing, knowing it will be the final blow, and it is. It disintegrates, and I'm left with a chunk of titanite.

I'm half-dead and all my Estus is gone, but this victory reinforces my confidence even further; I decide to go down the ladder through the undead rats and across the underside of the drake bridge to use the bonfire on the other side, hoping I'll get something else on the way…and wouldn't you know it, one of the undead rats drops a Humanity sprite, so I can revive myself when I make it back to the bonfire. It also means I can heal myself right away - when absorbed, Humanity sprites heal all of an Undead's injuries, though it's impractical to use it for that alone. It's a good thing I use it for it now, though, as I get a bit careless on the way back and nearly die fighting a Hollow soldier on the underside of the bridge.

Back to a kindled bonfire that gives me ten Estus, and which I use to revive my body. There's no denying it: I'm getting cocky now. I want to try taking that other black knight on, so I head to that tower recklessly. One of the Hollows on the way drops a shard of titanite, encouraging me even further; I'm actually starting to consider facing the drake.

I have to get close to the bottom of the spiral staircase before the knight notices me. Now that I'm actually taking a good look at it, I see that this one's much more stout than the others, and I'm not sure it's actually of the same order as the ones I've fought thus far - its oddly-shaped club is black, but its armor and shield are silver, and of a different make. Whatever it is, it seems capable of doing only one thing: Slamming its club against the floor. At first, I try luring it up the stairs all the way, but at the second-to-last floor, I realize that that's pointless, as any floor is adequate for this. Once I figure this out, I engage it directly, and I let it slam the ground, then swing at it once and back up, again and again and again. At one point, I trip down some stairs and end up on the floor below, but this doesn't hinder me. I'm just starting to think this is easy, when the knight switches to holding its weapon with one hand and its shield with the other; when I next go in to strike after a smash on the floor, the shield comes up and blocks me. Unexpectedly striking the solid metal throws me off-balance, and the knight wastes no time in bringing the full force of the club down on my head; I die instantly.

It's just like the black knight from a little while ago: One mistake got me swiftly killed, but the overall fight just encourages me to keep trying. I fight my way back through again to return to the knight; it's only when I'm halfway there that I realize I've been Hollowed again, after just reviving myself. It almost bothers me, how little I'm starting to care about that. Still, I get back to the tower without even a scratch from any of the Hollows, and lure the knight up the stairs without even remembering to recover the energy I lost before - luckily, I happen upon it when I lure the knight up to the next floor and recover it then. I'm starting to get a good read on this creature's attack patterns, even notice that stepping around it might be more effective than trying to step away from it, as the club's range is more limited than I first estimated; but after a while, again, one mistake and one strike with the club, and I'm dead. No matter; I go back again.

The next return trip isn't quite so smooth, and I do have to take a drink from my Estus Flask at one point. Despite that, I'm plenty strong by the time I reach the knight - and besides, the way things have been going, no amount of Estus is so much as useable against this foe anyway. This time, my shield manages to block a few blows, and I get quite a few in. After a little bit of dancing on one floor, I start climbing up to the next, since I got most of my hits while we were climbing the first set of stairs. On the way up, I make a mistake, and almost die but not quite; instead of taking the boon and using it, however, in a rushed decision, I try to revive myself with Estus, even though it's pointless, and the time it takes me to do this gets me killed. Okay, another lesson learned.

Getting up to the tower is a bit tougher this time - my blue tearstone ring even saves me from death at one point - but I still get there. It's at this point that it occurs to me that the souls I've accumulated taking this trip again and again are more than enough to strengthen myself with; I decide to recover what I lost, then go back to the bonfire to use the souls I've gathered, and then come back again - I use a Homeward Bone to make it faster. The next journey back is all but eventless, and then I'm fighting the knight once more. I'm painfully reckless this time, though, and the knight kills me in two strikes. It's okay, I should have been more careful; I can still do this.

Again, I have a bit of difficulty getting back - it's the firebombing Hollows that give me the most trouble this time, but one of them also drops one after dying, so it's not all bad. Then I'm back to the knight again, and this time, it's close, _really_ close…but, of course, I die. Having had victory so nearly in my grasp, I go charging back, knowing I can do this.

Nothing of note happens on this trip, but when I recover the power I lost, I discover that, even though it takes a slightly larger amount each time, I once again have enough souls to strengthen myself; I need that for this, more than anything, so I do the Homeward Bone thing again. The difference is slight, but I do notice it when I take the path once more. Against the knight, though, nothing is different except, perhaps, my resistance: At one point during the fight, I do actually use my Estus Flask to my advantage. This fight drags on, and it's so close, at one point I feel certain I've won. Then, one or two strikes before it falls, the knight manages to get a full blow on me, and I die. Being so painfully close makes me angry, and more determined - I will not rest until this thing has fallen.

The next fight, and the journey to it, are nothing special. More than once, though, I prove able to withstand a blow from the knight's club, and I use my Estus Flask several times. It turns out that there's only so direct a blow can be before it kills me, though, as eventually the knight gets one hit on me that kills me from full health. My jaw clenches even as I rise from beside the bonfire. This creature will _not_ defeat me.

When I exit the bonfire room this time, one of the nearby Hollows jumps off the building, and I feel its souls flow into me; I wonder what caused it to do that. Oh well, no matter. I cross the bridge to the next room, and for some reason, I focus on one of the Hollows high above throwing firebombs at me; this causes me to lose my rhythm, and a bunch of Hollows from inside, combined with the rain of firebombs, leaves me stunlocked, until I slip off a crumbled rampart and die. That's embarrassing. But I can only try again. Luckily, my remains are just inside the gap in the wall where I slipped.

Another eventless return to the tower. It's really embarrassing that I failed just a few minutes ago - I should be able to walk this path in my sleep, I've done it so many times. The dance with this knight is familiar now, too. This time, I'm a bit more cautious - just a bit more - and I move around a bit more…and it pays off. Eventually, the knight falls, fading from existence like an Undead who hasn't quite gone Hollow yet; I wonder who or what it was. I don't have to wonder for long, though, as he leaves behind a magic ring worn by the legendary warrior-bishop Havel the Rock: Havel's Ring. And this…is the answer to all my problems. It greatly increases how much weight a person can bear, which explains why the knight with the impossibly heavy club (Havel, I presume) was even able to swing it. More importantly, with me wearing it, I'm able to stand the weight of my armor, and can move freely and nimbly - she never needed this, but for me, it's a godsend. I take off the Wolf Ring to put it on, and I can feel the strength flow through me - it's not so much inside me, more like something I'm wearing, but what matters is that the weight of my armor is now easily bearable. All my prior failures completely die in light of this triumph.

Elated, I hurry back to Andre, to use the titanite shard I got before to reinforce some of my armor; now, I can actually use it on what I'm wearing. On the way, just for fun, I bait the drake into frying all the Hollows on the bridge it guards, delighted with my new speed - though I do also notice that the drake is much more reactive these days, and I can't guess at why. Further along the way, another Hollow kindly gives me another shard of titanite. Once I'm going around the main church, though, I start having a little too much fun with the Hollows, and one of the stronger knights kills me; I don't care, as I haven't lost anything at all - those souls will be there when I make it back up.

And I _do_ make it back up, without any difficulty this time. By now, I have enough souls to reinforce my leggings and gauntlets once each _and_ strengthen my own body, not that I need that nearly as much now that I have Havel's Ring. After that, I return to the waterway via Firelink Shrine, stopping just a moment to refill my Estus Flask and actually strengthen myself, and head back for the wall of white light; I'm in such a hurry that I trip and fall down some of the stairs on the way, and one of the bandits manages to cut open a wound I need to pack with a clump of bloodred moss. None of that matters. I think I'm ready to fight whatever demon lurks down here now.


	14. Chapter 13

When I traverse the white light, I can see the monster clearly: It's a minotaur-like creature with a goat's skull for a head, wielding two enormous blades; a long, bony tail snakes from its back. There are also two lizard-dogs in here, but one swing of my sword kills each of them. The demon, too, turns out to be far weaker than it seemed before - I can block its consecutive attacks, and my attacks are all but devastating to it. With only a couple of close calls and four swigs of Estus, I fight it and kill it. It gives a tremendous roar and disintegrates, leaving me with a Humanity sprite, a Homeward Bone, and…a key.

I stop for a minute to look at this key. What locked doors remain for me to open? To my surprise, I can only think of one - the one I passed on my way down here. Wondering if I've finally opened the path I've been seeking, I head back to it, too curious to even think about using my new Humanity sprite to revive my body. When I try the key, the door opens.

Inside are stairs, leading to more stairs, but before I descend them, I can already tell that this is a sewer - it's obvious from the stench, the moisture, the slimy surroundings. Around the side of the stairs leading down is a corpse with one of the largest soulmasses I've seen. Apart from this, at first, there's a place with wooden floors holding up barrels and crates, tables and chairs; a bunch of ragged Hollows, some with torches, hang around here, but all fall before a single blow of my sword. Down a few more stairs is a lizard-dog guarding what almost looks like a kitchen of sorts. At first, I think this could not be a more strange or unlikely place for a kitchen, but when I peer around a fireplace with a pot boiling over the flames, I see a hulking, faceless creature chopping raw meat on a table with a large knife. The creature is beyond Hollow, the sort that would find a sewer the perfect place for a kitchen; my question answered, I walk forward to fight it - I've fought demons and black knights, this thing doesn't scare me at all. Unfortunately, I fail to notice the presence of another lizard-dog, and it draws my attention while the behemoth walks out from behind its table. This lizard-dog is far too jumpy, positively bouncing around, and in my bid to get rid of it so I can focus on the larger foe, I fall into some knee-deep stagnant water. Down here are a couple more lizard-dogs, and the large butcher-thing has no qualms about coming down here; though I get the first dog, I'm soon surrounded, and killed.

I'm brought all the way back to the Firelink Shrine, but now I know what I'm facing, I don't even hesitate before heading back down. I also don't bother to revive myself - it's too likely that I'll just die again, so I'll save the sprite for later.

On the way back, apart from a Hollow dropping another firebomb, nothing of note happens. Back down among the ragged Hollows in what my nose tells me is soon to become a sewer, one of them - I'm not sure which - gives me a humanity; I'm glad for this, as it means that, once I use it, I'll have a sprite as backup in case I die again. Then I go back down to the lizard-dogs and the butcher. This time, though, somehow, there is no second lizard-dog - I remember I killed it last time while struggling in the water, and conclude that it doesn't revive. Quickly, I'm one-on-one with the butcher, who turns out to be carrying a meat cleaver almost as long and wide as a man my size, as well as a rolling pin in its other hand - not another knife, like I assumed before. It's slow, though, and my sword is strong; the grunts it makes seem to be those of a creature all muscle and no brain, and soon, it falls. From it, I gather a simple sack that it was using as a head covering - I have no use for it, but the invisible crow at the Northern Undead Asylum will probably like it.

By the table covered in raw meats is a treasure chest; inside is a large ember. It doesn't seem to have any magical properties, but it would still probably help Andre, and by extension, me, so I'm glad to have it. Then I go down into the water to find where all the souls I left behind are. I get to the stairs that lead down into the slimy, rancid liquid, and from it I can see both my death spot and one of the lizard-dogs. First, I focus on the dog; it goes down without too much trouble, and the other one sneaks up on me and hits me in just such a way that I can recover the souls I dropped before. After that, it dies, and when I find a ragged Hollow standing around down here, I easily cut it down.

The only way out of the water besides the way I came seems to be a pile of rubble from a wall that collapsed, leading up to a passage. When I climb up, there's a doorway immediately to my left. Inside, I find a ton of barrels…and in one of the far back ones is a man.

"…You," he says, as though not believing I'm even here. "Yes, you!…Here, over here!…Please…You must help me…"

Everyone I've helped so far has helped me in return, so I smash through the barrels to release him without second thought.

"…Th-thank you," he stammers. "I would have been her supper without you. Being eaten alive! I shudder to think…Thank you, thank you dearly. I am Laurentius, of the Great Swamp. I will not forget my debt to you."

I nod. "I am Deimos of Astora," I tell him.

"Oh, hello there," he says in acknowledgement.

"Will you be alright?" I ask.

"I am fine, thanks to you," he replies, smiling at me.

I smile back. "I'll expect to see you at Firelink Shrine," I tell him, and then I turn and continue on my way - there's nothing else in here.

Good deed done, I start walking down a stone passageway lit by torches. At a corner, I stop to look around; when I hear a sound behind me, I disregard it. This turns out to be a mistake, as a second butcher is suddenly upon me. Without time to react, I'm hacked to pieces.

Just like that, I'm back at the Firelink Shrine again. Before heading down again, I decide to check if Laurentius has made it here. Now that I have people to talk to, I use my Humanity sprite (the humanity I gained before is back down in the sewer) to revive myself so I can be presentable, then put away my sword and shield and remove my gargoyle helm; in truth, this is more out of pride than anything. First, I go to my acquaintance, wondering if he has anything to tell me.

"Did you see her?" he asks me in a disgusted tone. "That virtuous little maiden, complete with followers in tow. They're probably going straight to pillage graves. I've heard enough about 'M'Lady' for a lifetime. Hmph!"

"No, I…did not," I reply. "I'll…go and meet her. Has anyone else showed up around here?"

He nods. "How _did_ that old man make it back?" he asks ponderously by way of reply. "Unexpected, but I suppose stranger things have happened." He ends with a dismissive gesture, probably not even realizing that he said the same thing about Griggs's return.

"Thank you," I say, and I go to look around. Laurentius is probably here, but there are others to meet as well, and I intend to meet them.

Up some stairs towards the main part of the shrine ruins, I look around and see Laurentius to my left, sitting cross-legged on the ground next to a dead tree. Glad to be proven right, I trot over to him.

"Well, I see you made it out!" he says brightly. "Yeah, I made it out safely, too." I don't bother to correct him; maybe the second butcher's focus on me is what allowed him to escape. "I have my Pyromancy of the Great Swamp, so I can usually manage, with a bit of care."

At this, I perk up. Pyromancy, the art of fire magic…some find the practice distasteful, I know, but here in Lordran, any asset is welcome.

And it just so happens that the next thing he says is, "Oh, yeah, by the way, er, I can share my spells with you. I think you have a knack for it. All you need are the materials. I'd be pleased to help you…" He thinks for a moment, then quickly adds, "Ah, unless you find the magics unsavory?"

"Unsavory? No, not at all!" I reply.

Laurentius positively lights up at this. "Yeah, wonderful!" he says brightly. "I'm sure they'll be of some use, some assistance. Here, first, take this."

He holds out his hand; on it, a tiny flame glows. I hold out my own hand, and he touches his palm against mine. The little flame splits, and one of the pieces hovers over to the palm of my hand; I feel the fire merge with my skin, the magic in my own grasp now.

"A flame from the Great Swamp," he says proudly, taking his hand back. "Now you're a fully fledged pyromancer. Why, let's get started right now."

Pyromancy spells, like sorceries, turn out to require souls for me to learn them, though, and I just lost all of mine coming back here. "Why don't you tell me more about pyromancy, first?" I ask evasively.

"Pyromancy is the art of casting fire," he explains. "Produce flame, then channel it; just as our ancestors did. A pyromancer must be in…in tune with nature herself. My home, the Great Swamp, is an abundant store of nature. You will understand, one day; it only takes time."

A smile tugs at my lips. She used to love talk like this, about appreciating nature rather than trying to conquer it.

"Pyromancy has a, well, rather primitive aspect to it," he goes on. "It meshes poorly with advanced culture, and pyromancers are considered rather unsavory. Which is fine, as I never got along with anybody anyway. So, for me, turning Undead didn't change a thing!" He chuckles good-naturedly.

"You seem friendly enough to me," I comment.

This sobers him for some reason. Then he confides in me, "A pyromancer's flame is…is a part of his own body. The flame develops along with his skill…When I gave you that flame, I gave you a part of myself. Please take good care of it."

I blink, surprised. "I…I will," I stammer. Still a bit stunned, I hesitate a moment, then awkwardly say, "I need to get going…"

"Good bye, then," Laurentius says. "Be safe, friend. Don't you dare go Hollow."

"Nor you," I reply, and I turn and walk away.

There's someone else here, apparently, and I want to meet them too before I go. Something about "M'Lady"…I've heard that term before - Petrus said it, when I asked who he was waiting for. Perhaps his company has arrived. On a hunch, I walk up to see him, and sure enough, I find a whole group of people. Petrus is where he's always been, and on the other side of the crumbling room are two soldiers with blue shields and silver armor, one carrying a gold-colored halberd. At the back, behind all of them, a figure in white kneels as though in prayer, their back to everyone. I approach Petrus first.

"Oh, hello," he says. "My guests have arrived. I will be departing with them shortly. So, I'm afraid I will be saying good-bye soon. It was a pleasure."

"Safe travels," I reply with a nod, for lack of a better response.

Then I approach the two soldiers, the one carrying the golden halberd first. He makes a strange chant under his breath, but doesn't acknowledge me. I turn to the other, a blond man with a mace; he speaks to me.

"Hm? What have we here?" he asks in an aloof tone. "You look awfully raggedy…Times are grim, the least you can do is look sharp! Don't you dare meet M'lady like that. You might scare her off for good!"

I blink, surprised - I actually think I look pretty good for an Undead, especially since I'm not Hollowed at the moment. He turns away, glancing at the white-cloaked figure behind him. "Excuse me," I say.

He turns back. "Oh, you again?" he asks, his tone becoming only slightly less abrasive. "What business have you? I don't suppose we can help, though. We accompany M'lady on her righteous mission. It is quite a chore, but I'm stuck with her, and Nico, too. I can't very well abandon them now." He turns back to the kneeling figure, who I'm beginning to suspect is this "M'lady" everyone's so interested in.

I hesitate a moment, then admit, "That's…fair. But why are you so rude to anyone who comes by?"

Again, he turns back, as though he all but forgot about me. "Oh, you yet again. You're a persistent one, aren't you?" He chuckles, then smiles at me. "Honestly, I don't have a problem with your kind," he admits. "But there's not very much that I can do. I am Vince of Thorolund. Let's say a word, for our safety. A prayer to our marvelous Lord. Vereor Nox."

"Vereor Nox," I repeat, more to be polite than because I understand the phrase. "I am Deimos of Astora."

"Oh, it's you?" he says, as though he's heard of me. He glances around at his companions, then informs me, "We are to leave momentarily. The Catacombs aren't exactly my idea of a good time, but…" He shrugs. "What can one do? I do hope we meet again. Vereor Nox."

"Vereor Nox," I repeat again, still solely to be polite. With that, I nod an official farewell, then approach the kneeling figure. "Um…excuse me," I say gently. "Hello."

Her head turns slightly towards me, but she doesn't stand. "You are Undead, as well?" she says, her voice soft and gentle, while also refined. "Then we've no time to fraternize. I have my mission, and you no doubt have yours. We must not let this curse overcome us."

"Not everyone seems to hate it," I say, trying to lighten the mood. "Who are you?"

"Did I not explain the urgency of our tasks?" she asks, her gentle voice impatient. "Who are you so uncouth as to lack such judgement? From the looks of you…I should think not."

I'm not entirely sure what she even means by this, but it's clear that she doesn't want to be bothered. "My apologies," I say, trying to keep as much snark out of my tone as possible, and I turn and go.

As I walk away from this group, I remember the soulmass I collected down at the entrance to the sewer - I never got around to absorbing it. Glad I remembered before leaving, I absorb it now, and return to Laurentius, hoping it's enough for at least a basic pyromancy.

"Oh, hello, there," he says as I approach. "I am glad to see you safe. As always, if you provide the materials, I can teach you pyromancy."

"Can you?" I ask, and he shows me what he can do. As it turns out, I have enough souls for one of two spells: combustion, or fireball. The fireball, inasmuch as I understand it, is basically a reusable set of firebombs, while combustion is a small flamethrower; I decide to take the smallest one first, and so I learn combustion, then thank him and bid farewell.

"Good-bye, then," he says. "Come back if you find anything new."

I nod and leave. Before I go, I take a moment at the bonfire to attune my new pyromancy, so that I can use it if need be - the strength I've absorbed from souls allows me to have two spells at the ready now.

My intention is to immediately leave, but this is the first time I've really rested at a bonfire (I was rushed and focused on other things when I revived my body) since I defeated the capra demon, and I sense her questioning. Smiling, I show her my fight with the monster, and in response, I can almost hear her laughter - directed not at me, but at herself. Our conversation is not of true words, but I get a sense that that demon gave her no end of trouble, and the fact that I basically slaughtered it makes her own fights with it seem pathetic. This makes me even more smug; not for her struggle, but for knowing I'm at least stronger than her. Her pride in my feats warms me more than the fire.

At last, I get up and head back to the sewers, re-equipping myself as I go. I put my new pyromancy flame on standby instead of my catalyst, as it doesn't add any weight to what I'm carrying - not that it matters nearly as much now. On the way there, one of the Hollows drops a shard of titanite, and the undead rat at the end of the waterway - much to my relief - drops a Humanity sprite, which I tuck away gratefully, glad to have a backup. Once I'm down there, one of the ragged Hollows on the upper floor gives me another humanity - possibly the same Hollow as last time, though I can't be sure.

When I climb out of the water via the pile of rubble, I'm sure to keep an eye out for the butcher who killed me last time. Carefully, I look in the room full of barrels, I look down the passage…nothing. Nothing but my own death spot. I run for it, then turn around quickly just in case, and out of literally nowhere, the butcher appears. It's a fair fight this time, and though it almost kills me at one point, I cut it down. Once it's dead, I go back to see if I can figure out where it came from, but I truly can't. Looking up, I see some rafters, but they seem too thin to have held up the burly creature…I decide to shrug it off and move on.

The passage ends a little further from where I died last time. Some barrels are heaped in a corner, and in the other corner is a closed wooden door; I test it, expecting it to be locked, but I'm surprised to find that it isn't. Through it is a narrow passage of stone stairs, up from which wafts an even more pungent stench than what there was before. I descend the steps carefully, and come to a section of deep, deep water. To my left is a corpse, but when I approach it, out of nowhere, an enormous black slime creature envelops me; I fight my way out of it, then run halfway back up the stairs and take a swig from my Estus Flask, relieved to find that the sludge can't climb out of the water.

On a hunch, I equip my new pyromancy flame and prepare the basic spell I learned. Then I step into the water to lure it over, and blast it with fire. My first attack falls short, as I overestimate how large the flame will be; my next makes it writhe and shrivel; and the third kills it. I make a mental note: Sentient slimes are very vulnerable to fire.

A ragged Hollow comes running from the opposite passage, almost as though to see what's going on, but I cut it down easily. The corpse that baited me into the black slime's grasp earlier contains a medium-sized soulmass, nothing more. I wade through the rancid water that's almost up to my waist through the passage, and here, the floor rises so that the water just barely passes my ankles. Able to walk freely now, I splash through the dark passages intermittently lit by torches, my shield raised. Small alcoves to my left contain wooden doors too tiny for any human to use; to my right are what appear to be archways filled in with bricks, and when I strike them with my sword, they prove to be just that, not illusions. Through another narrow doorway is a more open passage with a ragged hollow bearing a torch at the far end; I start walking down it, when three enormous slimy things drop from the ceiling. These aren't as big or subtle as the black sludge I encountered earlier, but I take a few steps back, equip my flame, and start burning them; they all die quickly. When I go a bit further forward, three more drop from the ceiling, and I burn them up too. I'm left with only one flame left to cast. The ragged Hollow stands still while all this happens, and I run toward it, taking my sword back out, and cut it down.

Behind where the Hollow was standing is a closed wooden door, and this one is locked. The smell of this place is starting to get to me, and I have a _lot_ of souls to use - I can buy more pyromancy, more sorceries, strengthen myself, all sorts of things back at the Firelink Shrine - so I decide to stop exploring this place for now and use a Homeward Bone.

Once I'm back, I go to Griggs first, and get a Great Soul Arrow, a spell more powerful than Soul Arrow and just as quick to cast; a spell called "Fall Control" also catches my eye, and I get that too. Next, I talk to Laurentius. His most powerful spell costs more than what I have left, but I ask him to reinforce the flame he gave me, and for a few souls, he does. With that done, I return to the bonfire and strengthen myself with what remains.

And at last, I take some time to just rest. I've done a lot since the last time I took a true break. As always, with her warmth beside me, no mind even to the putrid sludge drying to a crust on my boots, I lie down and fall asleep.


	15. Chapter 14

I wake up feeling refreshed. My acquaintance told me that Blighttown is far below Undead Burg; that's surely where the sewer leads. Sanitation isn't a problem when you're Undead, so I can set concerns about sewage aside as I head back. A Hollow drops another firebomb for me on the way back into the depths, and once I'm in, one of the ragged Hollows gives me another humanity, meaning I now have three burning in my chest. Being this human feels so good. Nothing else of note happens; apparently, the butchers are permanently gone, and the black sludge that attacked me also seems to be gone, though the more pus-colored slimes further on are still waiting for me, flanked by ragged Hollows. One of the slimes leaves behind a shard of titanite after I burn it up, a _green_ shard; I remember Andre saying I need this to ascend my sword to a divine weapon, and I tuck it away gladly.

Hardly any time has passed when I reach the locked door I came across before. There's a passage to my left, and with no other options, I take it. Stone steps lead down to a floor made of a metal grate. Some old crates are stacked to my left, and I smash them to reveal a ladder leading down under the floor I'm standing on. On the far side of the space, though, is another passage, and I'm not sure which way to go. I decide to go forward - my objective is down, so hidden or not, the ladder is probably a more direct route.

The passages are getting wetter and slimier, and when I come to the next waterway, a group of five undead rats is clustered to my right; I kill them all, though the last one manages to poison me - I quickly heal myself with a clump of purple moss. Beyond the rats is a dead end, but I find a corpse carrying a greataxe - a powerful weapon, though one I'm not nearly strong enough to wield right now.

With only the one other option remaining, I turn and follow the passage the other way, and this is where I find the first couple of rancid, oozing, flesh-colored lumps of slime growing out of the floor. They're harmless, but when I strike them, blood splashes everywhere, and the lumps break apart into squishy pieces. A step further, the walls are oozing continuously with slime in places, sliding down the stone bricks in huge globs; these, I can't break. This place is horrific. Trying not to mind the cloying smell of rotting flesh that surrounds me, I carry on.

I come to a turn in the passage, and an undead rat jumps out of a crate and surprises me; I kill it quickly. I've noticed a lot of doorways blocked by bricks and stone on my way here, but none of them are illusory, and I wonder what purpose they ever served. Another undead rat is standing a ways down the widening tunnel, looking at me; I approach it, and it literally vanishes. When I get closer, I see that it actually jumped off a ledge it was perched on; some wooden stairs lead down to an even more dank, slimy area, and more undead rats than just the one are down there - four, as it turns out. One manages to poison me, but they all die in the end; past them is an iron grate all but overrun with lumps of slime, and I manage to reach through the bars to take a key from a corpse. There's only one locked door that I currently know of, so I head back up, glad to get away from the worst of this pit.

On the way back, something huge lunges against the rusty bars that make up the lower portion of the wall beside the grate floor; I look and discover that another passage runs parallel to this one, at a lower level, and in it is an _enormous_ undead rat, several times my size. Its pungent, rotting smell, while not the only odor down here, certainly doesn't help the place, but the size of the beast unnerves me slightly. I'm not sure how to get to it - the gate goes all the way down, separating the lower floor I haven't explored from the waterway the enormous rat is standing in, and I wonder how I'll eventually find my way back around to it.

Back at the locked door, I try the key I just found on it, and it works. A sort of dry-rot smell wafts from within, almost a relief compared to the rest of the place; down a narrow stone passage is a small room that's actually completely dry, and at the center of this room is a bonfire. Relieved, I light the fire and sit down to rest; I have plenty of humanity to spare, so I use one to kindle the flame, meaning I can completely fill my Estus Flask from here. I know the slimes and rats and Hollows are all revived now, but at least I've found a nearby place where I can rest. All I need is just a few moments, and then I go back out and descend into the muck once more; one of the ten rats I kill along the way drops a Humanity sprite. This done, I return to the grate through which I pillaged the key, and this time I actually look through it. What I see somehow doesn't surprise me: It's the enormous rat. At least I can still tell where I am.

Under the stairs I descended to reach the grate - which has no means of passing through it - is a cramped stone passageway. Halfway along it and to my right, an equally cramped slope - not stairs, oddly enough - leads down to a hole through which water is continuously draining. The hole is large enough for me to fall through, so I don't try to get past it, but I make a mental note of it - perhaps something important is down there.

Further along the passage, at a place where the corridor turns, I find a corpse carrying a medium-sized soulmass. Around the corner is a wall of white light. This seems like an unlikely place for a monster, so I traverse the light without hesitating. Sure enough, there's only another room on the other side, and the light dissipates behind me. This, though, opens up to an enormous chamber, so big it's hardly even justifiable to call it a room, viewable but not reachable just now. I walk up to the edge of a wooden staircase to look over the railing, and one of three undead rats from down the short flight of stairs comes to fight me; I kill it without much trouble, but when I turn back to resume gawking, a spellcaster walks along the side of the stairs. Trying to avoid alerting any of the other rats, I move back a couple of times; every time the spellcaster finds it can't hit me with its spells, it moves. At one point, it also does that weird dance and chant, but to no apparent end. When it's safely up the stairs, I swing at it; it gets one hit on me with its weird trident, but three swings from my sword and it's down.

One of the remaining two undead rats drops a Humanity sprite when I kill it. Finally free to look around, down the short flight of stairs, I walk up to the edge of the castle-like ramparts to look at the vast open space in front of me. It's full of pillars with their centers crumbled - so I wonder why the place hasn't caved in, especially considering how huge it is - and on the far side, which is so far away I can barely even see it, is a gap in the wall, through which shines some white daylight. I can't get to the floor of this place from here, though, so I continue exploring. To my left is a length of balcony; I walk along it, and from two crates burst two undead rats. They catch me by surprise, but after that, I cut them down quickly. The next section also has two crates against the wall, but when I smash them open, they prove to be empty. Then, tucked away in a corner, I find a corpse carrying a large shard of titanite.

Heading back the other way, I take the balcony into a room where another undead rat is up against a wall…There are a lot of rats down here, but I suppose this makes sense for a sewer. Past the rat is a tight rectangular passage through the brick wall that leads to another cramped waterway. This one has several passages branching out - in fact, I'm not even sure it's a different place - and I start to become worried about getting lost, if not terribly so.

The first passage to my right has an undead rat in it; the rat runs down the passage to what I can clearly see is a hole draining water, and I refuse to let it lure me over there. A ways down the passage I'm in is another slime, which I burn up quickly. Around the corner is another passage, and I can see a corpse not far from me, but at the last moment, I notice a hole in front of me, like the ones for draining water, except no water is flowing in this particular path, and catch myself, instead turning around to head back to where I saw the rat earlier. Halfway between the hole at the end of the passage and the place where I enter, a branch to my left offers another route; I see an undead rat at the end of this one, too, but I don't see any drain holes, and this path is flooded, so I approach it without concern. After I cut it down, I register that there's no more water here; a little further on, I find the corpse that nearly lured me into a hole, which carries a smallish soulmass. Now, to my right, is a slope - again, not stairs, oddly - that leads up to a wider passage. Barely do I step outside, though, before an enormous rat - presumably the same one I saw earlier - charges at me. It misses me, somehow, and I retreat to take a moment to review the situation, then decide to go charging it - it's a giant rat, not a demon, and I've slaughtered demons. The stinking beast charges at me, and I at it; I manage to get one swing of my sword on it, but it knocks me to the ground, and I barely have time to stand again before it knocks me down once more. I'm trapped under its enormous body, and it smashes me to death.

Just like that, I'm back at the bonfire I recently lit, my body Hollowed; I have a few spare Humanity sprites, so I use one to restore myself without worrying. Then, I decide it's time to return to the room with a grate floor and take the ladder to see if I can somehow reach the giant rat from there. The ragged Hollow outside charges at me when it sees me, waving its torch wildly, and it gets a couple hits on me and even manages to momentarily set me on fire; my resulting injuries might not be worth a drink of Estus, but I take one just in case.

Down the ladder I go - it's very short - and then I'm on the same level, a gate between me and where I was. Though it takes me a minute, I manage to catch sight of my death spot along the very edge of the wall, so I know this is indeed the same giant rat. However, I can't get to it from here, not even magic or fire can reach past the bars; it sees me, but soon gives up when it realizes the same thing. The only other thing down here is a closed door, and I only check it out of curiosity; it turns out to be locked from the other side, which means there was never any point in taking the ladder. I do remember the route I took to get to the giant rat before, though, and I follow it, slaughtering rats and a certain slime as I go; I get poisoned once, but nothing else happens. Once I'm there, I look around the corner to find my death spot, which takes a few seconds. There are two humanities in that mess, and the giant rat is close…I deliberate for a moment, then run out to grab it - I'll make a point not to get trapped against a wall again.

The monster is huge, but it's slow, and once I'm not trapped against a wall, I'm able to slash at it without it hitting me because it takes so long to move. It does get a few hits on me later in the fight, but I decide to stop caring and just slash away at it. Soon, it gives a blood-curdling screech and disintegrates, leaving behind a single Humanity sprite.

Now I'm free to explore this area. The first thing I do is raid a corpse up against a wall, and from it, I get a medium-sized soulmass. Next, I find that the far end of this space leads to an enormous water drain; I can't tell where it goes. From there, I search around thoroughly, but after a minute, I confirm that there was actually no point in coming this way - no passages, and no tools of any kind; the only thing I've accomplished is exterminating one of the many, many sources of stench in this place.

I head back, and this time, I drop down the first hole I reach - it's the only other thing I can think to do. The fall is long, and I hit the wet floor hard; the damp air is positively rancid down here. After a minute, a big, black, amphibious creature with bulging red eyes scuttles around a corner; I cut it down without waiting to see what it can do, and when a second joins it, I cut that down, too. Only after this do I have time to take a drink of Estus to heal myself from my fall; I then inspect a corpse in a corner, and find a large-ish soulmass. Then, somehow, a gray fog starts to seep around me, and when I breathe, it burns my throat; I turn around and see my entire way blocked by a huge cloud. When I run through it to escape it, I can feel it seeping into me - not a poison, but something else, something attacking my very soul; I can feel the humanities within me fighting against it. I escape without incident, and turn back around to see another black froglike creature; this must be what they do, and I kill it before it can create any more smoke. From it, I manage to pillage an eye that has a strange sort of curse on it; I'm not sure what to do with it, but I tuck it away.

Around the corner and down the passageway, I see some stone stairs to my left, but first, I pass under them through a narrow passage. This leads to a room with three more black amphibious things, and this time I watch them spray the smoke around, red pouches under their necks swelling up to allow them to shoot it out. I don't know what exactly the stuff does, but I'm determined not to find out, and I cut them down relatively quickly. Beyond them is another narrow passage, and this leads to a room blocked off by a metal gate, in which I find a corpse wearing a Ring of the Evil Eye, a magic ring that takes health from fallen enemies - but I have more use for the two rings I'm already wearing, so I tuck it away and don't put it on.

Up the stone steps I passed earlier, I'm given a path on either side of me, and a metal gate in front of me; when I look to my left, I see another black creature crawling down some stairs in an unnervingly natural-looking fashion. It falls through the mostly-nonexistent floor - only a couple of ledges along either wall provide passage - and into the room below, which is the same room I last killed three of its kind in. I jump down after it to kill it, without incident, just to make sure it won't sneak up behind me later; I then go back up and climb up the stairs it came down, but find it only leads to another hole in the floor, with a corpse on the other side, too far away to reach, taunting me. For a moment, I deliberate, then decide to try to run and jump for it - with the strength granted by Havel's Ring, I can jump now, and possibly even make this. On the first try, I miss, but the fall is too short to even hurt, and I'm just put back in the room where I found the Ring of the Evil Eye. My second time, I make it, earning a Humanity sprite for my trouble; I use the hole as a shortcut back, and then I'm ready to see what's to the right of the top of the first stairs.

To the right and around another corner, I find two more of the black creatures. They don't trouble me much, and beyond them, I find an impassable metal grate; but in one of the walls is a narrow passage, and in it is a corpse with a medium-sized soulmass. I'm also starting to find veritable pillars of slime-flesh oozing here and there, and I smash them in a vain attempt to clean this place up a bit. A little ways further, I find a waterfall coming down from the ceiling, and on the side where I am, there are a few stairs. One of the black creatures sees me and comes up after me, but I kill it without difficulty, There's nothing under these stairs, so I proceed forward, and find myself back in the territory of undead rats. I kill rats and smash mounds of slime-flesh around several corners, when suddenly, a disturbance ripples through the air.

From the ground rises a red phantom; some runes identify it as dark spirit Knight Kirk. There are still a couple of undead rats around, so I hurry to kill them, and then I engage with the evil spirit. It's strong, but no stronger than me, and with some tactics and aggression, and a swig of Estus, I defeat it. It leaves behind a puddle of liquid humanity and a spiked shield; I take both, though I have no intention of using the shield. I then take a few moments to wonder what just happened. Who was that, and why and how did they attack me? Soon, I stop bothering to try to understand, and simply continue on.

A few more stairs lead up, and then I'm in a wide passageway; a slime approaches me, and I burn it. There are two other slimes here, as well as an undead rat; with these vanquished, I look around. One way leads to a waterfall that I'm certain I don't want to fall down; the other way ends in a metal grate with a hole torn in some of the bars. Through the hole, I find a dry area full of wagon wheels and old crates, and at the far end is a huge wooden gate that is almost certainly locked. Off to one side, under a torch, I find an Undead sitting cross-legged, horns on its golden helmet. I approach.

"Hello," I say, "I am Deimos of Astora."

"Aye, siwmae," he says in reply, an odd accent lacing his words. "And good day to you. I'm Domhnall of Zena. I'm just, well, a peddler, of sorts. I adore trinkets and oddities, so I trade for them."

"Well, let's see what you have," I respond.

He sells gold pine resin, various arrows and bolts, a bottomless box, some strange crystallized swords and a crystallized shield, and some armor that is flashy but far heavier than what I'm wearing - I have Havel's Ring, but I still need to be careful. The swords and shield, though very strong, are also incredibly heavy; the only peculiarity I'm interested in buying is the bottomless box - I can store any amount of things in there, and I've been gathering quite a bit of junk during my travels. With no reason not to, I buy it.

"Do you have any advice for where I'm going?" I ask out of random curiosity - if he's been sitting down here, he's travelled far, and with the things I've been seeing, I welcome a chance at information.

"Hmm," he says slowly. "Well, I'm certain we'll make a good trade eventually…So, I am willing to share some tips. If you seek Kindling in the Catacombs, use divine weapons. That will repel the reassembling skeletons."

"I've heard about that," I reply thoughtfully. "I wondered why people would need divine weapons in the Catacombs…that would explain it. Can you tell me anything about this place, though?"

"Hmm…I'm afraid I don't see anything here," he says cryptically.

I buy a gold pine resin from him, on the off chance that will get him to talk, but he still holds back, though I'm sure he knows more. With nothing else left for it, I bid farewell.

"Thank you," he says, "That was a fine trade. I have this funny feeling we'll meet again soon. And we'll make another fine trade, of course!"

Without another word, I nod and turn to go. Just to make sure, I check the huge doors; they are indeed locked. Up close, I can see that they're made of wood _and_ iron, very sturdily - they must lead somewhere important, there's no question of that, but obtaining the key will probably be a trial. Back out through the hole in the grate, I find a small passage to my left, in which is another undead rat and some stairs. The stairs lead up to a castle-like balcony, overlooking the same huge room I saw earlier, only lower now; I decide to turn back and look around for more things before continuing to explore here. Apart from the way I came in, an alcove and some torches mark one more doorway, this directly opening to stairs. The stairs go up, and up, until they end with a door that's locked from this side; I unlock it, and sure enough, I'm in the room on the other side of the giant rat's domain once more, the bonfire conveniently close. I decide to stop there and rest, strengthen myself and use my new bottomless box, before going back down and continuing on.

With the shortcut open, I only run across a few things before I'm back in the huge room, though the ragged Hollow just outside the passage to the bonfire does manage to get a cheap shot on me. On the way, I discover on the way that one of the slimes was hanging from the ceiling to drop down on me before I found it, and one of the rats was out in the open but fled into the passageway where I found it last time. Neither of these discoveries really matter, but it's good to know what's where.

Back on the balcony again, I look around, but discover nothing on this floor except some stairs leading down to a balcony one level below me. Down here, I find not one, but two summon signs, one of which is Solaire, the other I don't recognize; I also discover a corpse carrying a heavyweight crossbow and some bolts to go with it. Wary, I want to summon the offered allies, but my pendant warms against my chest; she's telling me not to. Why not, I don't know, but I trust her - and surely, I don't really need help anyway.

Down some more stairs, I come to a doorway at ground level that is blocked off by white light. Quickly, I take a swig from my Estus Flask to heal the injury the Hollow gave me, then only hesitate another moment before traversing it.

I enter the room, and in the distance, at the far end, where a continuous waterfall cascades down a hole, a reptilian head, like that of a crocodile, pokes up from below. Then, an enormous hand crashes down on the floor in front of it, then another, and the most enormous monster I've ever seen climbs out of the pit, the head far too small for the body. It has two pairs of wings, one on top of the other; a long, misshapen body with a total of six limbs not counting the tail, all of which seem to be usable as arms; and a huge tail that's really the only streamlined part of this beast. Then it rears up on its four hind legs, raising its front two like arms, and I see that what I thought were exposed ribs are actually the outmost fangs of an enormous, tentacled mouth that makes up almost half of the monster's total size. Its roar shakes the ground, and I ready myself.

Before anything else, I jog into the room and loot a corpse I see on the floor off to the side, just in case it's carrying something useful; I only manage to strip a set of hard leather armor, when the monster's hand comes crashing down on me. I'm not killed, and I retreat and drink from my Estus Flask, ready to focus on the fight. _Both hands!_ screams a voice. _Both hands!_ I put my shield on my back and take my sword in both hands; it doesn't occur to me to switch to my Grass Crest Shield so that its invigorating properties aid me in the fight, I don't have time to think. The beast is monstrous, but with such size comes slow movement, and I can run around it without much trouble. Sometimes, when I'm far away, it slams its huge chest-mouth against the ground, even though there's nothing there; that always provides me time to run around behind it and attack. To be safe, I focus on the tail, which it doesn't seem to use and can't defend. After I land a few swings of my sword on it, however, the tail is completely severed, dropping to the ground and shrinking into a huge greataxe that I pick up and stow away.

Now, I only have to strike at the thing. It's not too hard to avoid, and what few hits it does manage to land on me are quickly healed with Estus. At one point, it opens its gaping mouth over the ground and vomits, releasing a huge pool of stomach acid, but I manage to outrun it until it dissipates. The scariest moment of the fight by far is when a leg I'm swinging my sword at grabs me and picks me up, and the creature deposits me whole into its chest-mouth and chews me. I'm not sure how I survive, but I manage to struggle and annoy it enough that it spits me out just before I die; I run away and drink from my Estus Flask to heal myself. At the very end, when I know I'm close, I simply start swinging, with no regard for what the monster might be doing; just before I slay it, it manages to spew out another puddle of stomach acid, and though I stay my ground to finish it off, the corrosive muck ends up washing over my sword, rendering it useless, as well as burning a little bit through my boots. Still, it is no more.

Finally, the colossal monster disintegrates, and I'm left with a Twin Humanities, a Homeward Bone, and a thick key that I know must go to the gate I saw earlier. Before I use any of it, though, I stop to take a moment to examine the greataxe I obtained from the beast's tail. It's beyond monumentally heavy, and I can barely lift it; from the texture, though, I realize this is one of the rare dragon weapons - dragons, and their kin, have tails that can be severed relatively easily and made into powerful magic weapons. The creature I just defeated must have actually been a deformed dragon of some sort.

Now, I have to go back to Andre and have him repair my useless sword. I use a Homeward Bone to bring me back to the fire, strengthen myself with the souls of the draconian monster, reach into my bottomless box to take out the Morning Star - which I'll have to use since my sword is broken - and then start climbing the rest of the way out. On the way, I discover that somehow, my pyromancy flame has been devastated by the monster's digestive system as well, so I take out my catalyst instead. It's difficult to make it back even to Firelink Shrine with only the Morning Star, since I haven't upgraded it, but not impossible; along the way, a Hollow gives me two firebombs. I return to the shrine to talk to Laurentius - the flame can't be repaired the way weapons can, but he can fix it by reinforcing it.

"It's strange, how this flame can be damaged by the same things that corrode metal," I comment as he does this. "It's as if pyromancy flames are more solid than just fire."

For some reason, a smile crosses his face, and he nods. "My teacher, whom I imagine still resides in the Great Swamp, had a funny way of putting it," he tells me. "He said that 'Pyromancy is the ultimate fantasy…We are born into Dark, and warmed by Fire, but this Fire we cannot touch. Those whose fascination with Fire persists, learn to hold it in their own hand.'" He chuckles. "He rather had a way with words, the old withering frog!"

I feel a smile tug at my own lips, even as the corners of my eyes begin to sting. "Someone I…was very…close to, would have loved everything about pyromancy," I confide in him. "She used to say that we are part of nature, and in trying to destroy it, we only destroy ourselves. She had a bit of a way with words, too. She'd probably be appalled to hear how the nature element of pyromancy comes across as distasteful to some people."

The man sighs. "In this land, pyromancers earn a certain respect," he says, almost reminiscently. "The Witch of Izalith, one of the legendary Lords, is the godmother of pyromancy. So, the day I became Undead, I was ecstatic. I felt as if I'd been chosen to attune myself to the ancient arts…Of course, it wasn't all that romantic in the end…"

"Funny, I've met a couple of other Undead - nearly Hollows - who also say turning Undead is one of the better things to happen to them," I comment. "And, well, you're here, aren't you? It's not so bad…" I sigh and shake my head. "I have to go," I tell him.

"Goodbye then," he says; "come back if you find anything new."

With a nod, I go and start climbing up through Undead Burg. On the way, I try parry-and-riposting with the Morning Star, and find I can smash it into a person's abdomen, then their head when they drop to their knees - blood sprays, and I manage to get the strange overkill bonus from it. This makes the trip a tiny bit less irksome, if only a bit. I also stop by the trinket stand and buy something that will make sure acid doesn't end up leaving me stranded in a more dangerous situation: a batch of lightly enchanted golden powder that magically repairs broken weapons. Yes, I could use one batch right now and buy another for later, but since I'm going to Andre anyway, and I want to save my souls, I only buy the one, for emergencies.

As I continue up, I forget about the shortcut to the Undead Parish, and am more than halfway along the normal route when I remember; I decide there's no harm, as it only means more souls for me. And it's a good thing, too, because as I pass through the land, I decide that I'm going to upgrade my Morning Star until it can be ascended to a divine weapon, and save my sword for some other modification that's even better.

One of the undead rats on the way poisons me, costing me another clump of purple moss. Then, once I reach the Undead Parish, I start to get careless, and one of the Hollow soldiers kills me. I haven't stopped at a bonfire since the sewers, so I have to climb all the way back up again; that's okay, this time I'll remember the shortcut, and I can kill all the slimes with my revived flame. Before I go, I use one of my many Humanity sprites to revive my body. Then I climb out of the sewers, through Undead Burg, up the shortcut, recover what I lost, and finally reach the smithery. Another Humanity sprite comes from a rat along the way, and by the time I get there, I even feel like I'm starting to get the hang of fighting with the Morning Star. I smile. It's almost like I'm fighting with her beside me.


	16. Chapter 15

I have nearly ten thousand souls when I put away my weapons and remove my helm to meet with Andre, but I don't use any of them when I stop to rest at the bonfire - I'm saving them for my weapons. When I approach the muscular smith, the first thing he notices is the ember I found down in the butcher's kitchen.

"Ahh, why, that's a fine ember you have there," he comments. "I could smith some mighty weapons with one of those. Why not lend it to me?"

"Sure," I reply, and I hand it to him.

"Magnificent!" he declares. "You won't be disappointed. I can hardly wait to get started…"

"There's no reason for you to," I tell him; "please, use it to upgrade my sword - and repair my sword in the meantime, too."

It takes the large shard of titanite I found near the gaping dragon's lair to raise my sword's strength even further without altering its properties. I use the one regular shard of titanite I have on me to upgrade my Morning Star once, then buy more shards from him - eight in total - and have him use them until it's strong enough to ascend. At last, I give him a shard of green titanite, and receive a Divine Morning Star.

"Thank you," I tell him.

We exchange farewells, and I swap my Divine Morning Star out for my sword - I'm going back down to the sewers to open that gate, I don't need a divine weapon right now. On my way, I re-equip myself, and then I take the lift in the parish down to the Firelink Shrine. When I get down and pass Petrus, I notice he's alone, "M'lady" and her escorts nowhere to be seen. Concerned by this, I approach him.

"Uh, oh, you again?" he stammers at the sight of me.

"Me," I say. "What are you doing?"

"Me? Er, I've become separated from M'lady," he answers. His vision goes distant as he laments, "I've scoured near and far, but no sight of her…Where could she have gone? M'lady…To think I swore to protect you with my life…"

He seems very distressed. "Will you be okay?" I ask, oddly bothered.

But he hardly even seems to have heard me. "Your Highness…where have you gone?" he moans. "I am entirely to blame for this…Oh woe is me. I am unworthy, deathly so…"

From distressed to downright self-pitying. "Hello?" I press.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he says, snapping out of it. "Miracles, was it?…Sometimes I lose myself; pay me no mind!"

"No, no, I don't need Miracles," I assure him. I sigh, then say, "Listen, I'll keep an eye out for her - I have something to attend to, but I can head down into the Catacombs now, I'll do that soon. I promise."

He is silent at this, and I leave him - at least I managed to stop his whining. I get a firebomb from one of the Hollows along the path back to the sewers, and I wander up the waterway, when a voice from my pendant screams at me to buy a blooming purple moss clump from the near-Hollow lady; I oblige, a bit confused.

"Oh, hello, dearie," she says, her voice barely audible. "You left me high and dry for a while, there. I thought maybe you'd forgotten about me. Are you back for more of my moss, then? Plenty of it here. Freshly peeled, just for you!" She cackles.

As instructed, I buy a blooming purple moss clump - just the one, and I'll see if I need them once I get to whatever my love is so worried about. "Do you know what I'd need it so desperately for?" I ask the merchant.

Her Hollowed face smiles nastily. "I forage moss," she says. "All kinds of poison and pestilence abound down below. You won't make it a stone's toss without moss! Make sure you take plenty with you!" Another snicker.

It's only then that I remember that the place I'm headed for is called "Blighttown". Registering this, I buy three clumps of regular purple moss with the souls I have left before I go.

"Come again, if you please!" she says cheerfully, chuckling.

With a nod, I head back down; the ragged Hollows on the way are cut down easily with my strengthened blade. In an attempt to save time, I try to run past the slimes that block the way to the bonfire before they drop from the ceiling, and this turns out to be a mistake; one of them lands on me and starts digesting me, and it's only because of my blue tearstone ring that I'm able to survive long enough to escape. I burn them all up before stopping at the fire, and again when I come back out; I also try to burn up all the slimes at the bottom of the long, long staircase, but I run out of fire castings with one of the slimes left alive. Slightly distracted, I start to climb the stairs back towards the dead draconian monster's lair, when I remember that that's not where I'm going, and I turn back around, go through the hole in the gate, and finally reach the enormous doors. The key I got from the behemoth is indeed the key to this barrier; the doors are heavy, but with a lot of strain, I get them open.

Immediately on the other side is the interior of a circular building with a ledge around the outside edge and nothing else, leaving a huge hole. I'm certain falling down that hole would be fatal, but I look around and soon see a ladder. I get to the ladder and slide down…down, down, further than almost any other ladder I've ever taken. At the bottom, I land on some rickety wooden platforms, and from there take another ladder made of sticks tied together down even further - sliding is more difficult with the rungs jutting out the sides, but I manage. Everything is questionable wooden planks, some torches, a few pots scattered here and there…I'm already wary of this place. There's only a narrow wooden bridge leading off into the distance, and cautiously, I take it; I barely take three steps before a hulking figure starts running towards me - it's a big lumpy thing, like a ghoul, carrying a club. Reflexively, I slash at it, and though my sword is strong, I underestimate how many hits it can take, and while I back up the short way I can and swing, the creature's club sometimes hits me. When it does, I can feel a little echo of poison ripple through my body - this club has poison on it! If something this simple can be poisonous, what does that say about what lies ahead?

Eventually, the creature falls, disintegrating, but she tells me it will come back when next I use a bonfire. Catching my breath, I slowly cross the bridge, but barely do I get across it when another ghoul with a club comes running. I'm a bit careless at first, and am nearly killed and poisoned all at once, but then I back up and start being more cautious, and the odds turn in my favor. At one point, the creature simply throws its head back and gives a tremendous roar; I take this opportunity to slash at it a few times, and it falls. I have to work hard to not think to myself, "That was easy."

Literally everything down here is mossy wooden planks, bundles of sticks, crumbling stones, and rather ornate old pots, oddly enough. Every step I take across this network of wooden rafters makes me anxious. A third ghoul is waiting for me a little further on, and having to walk backwards on this flooring while fighting is almost nerve-wracking; I do not like or trust this place. Just past where the third ghoul was, two creatures with loincloths that look like a humanoid cross between ragged Hollows and the lizard-dogs from…is it only just above?… run at me, wielding small blades. They like to roar at me, but a few swings from my sword cut them down. A few steps past their bodies, my eyes barely catch sight of something tiny flying for me; it hits me, and I feel a jolt of a powerful poison in my system, albeit at a low dose: Toxin. This more potent form of poison can't be cured with normal antidotes, only equally more potent antidotes…like purple moss clumps blooming with flowers.

 _Thank you,_ I think, clasping a hand around my pendant when I'm back out of range of whatever's shooting toxin at me. Having only one clump, I consider going back and maybe getting more, but decide against it; I've come this far. Right around a corner, I find the culprit, and I cut it down easily; even better, I find two clumps of purple moss on its body, and gratefully take them both.

Suddenly, a small blade tears into my back from behind - a lizard-man snuck up on me. Another comes running behind it, and a third climbs a ladder beside me, this one carrying a spear. When I fight them all off without too much difficulty, I decide I'm definitely more than ready to deal with this place. Out of pure curiosity - because I know it's not the way I'm supposed to go - I descend the ladder that that one lizard-man climbed up. Another lizard-man is waiting at the bottom, but I kill it with ease. The series of wooden platforms, I'm noticing, isn't even straight, some of them slant at dangerous angles; I carry on, determined. Along the path I've found, I find another lizard-man, this one wielding a bloody corpse as a weapon; I cut it down, and when it's dead, I'm surprised to be able to pillage a small-ish soulmass from it. Beyond it is a corpse from which I pillage one of the largest soulmasses I've ever seen. Then the path ends, and I go back and climb the ladder.

A little ways past this, down some sloping wooden platforms held together almost haphazardly, I find two short bridges I can take, both of which look dubious; I take the nearer one, and a little past the halfway point, it starts to move underneath me. Without thinking, I run across the rest of the way - which isn't far - and get assaulted by a lizard-man; while I fight this one off, another climbs a ladder to me, this one also carrying a bloody corpse as a weapon, and I cut it down too. Given a moment to breathe, I go around the back of a random wooden wall and find an earthy ledge; I slide off the end of it, and land on a platform with a corpse that's wearing a shadow-sneaking outfit - good for stealth, but not for battle, and I put it all away. The only way off the platform I've reached is a ladder, and I take it.

It's at this point that I start to really notice how dark it is down here. Obviously, I'm below sewer-level, there's no daylight, but the darkness limits my vision to a meter or two, along with the immediate area around any torches, of which there are several but not exactly plenty. I can't find my way around here - I search, but I can't find any more ladders or passages of any kind. Somehow, a lizard-man that I alert from above finds its way to me, but I truly can't figure out how, nor do I understand when a second one finds me; one of them drops a tiny soulmass. After that, the only thing I can find is a corpse on the very edge of a perilously steep wooden ledge that I just manage to salvage a large soulmass from. Back up the ladder, the only other thing I can think is to jump down to a place a little higher than the level I just climbed up from; but the only thing here is a corpse with another large soulmass. Confused and frustrated, I do the last thing I can think of: I use a Homeward Bone.

Back at the sewer bonfire, I refill my Estus Flask and strengthen myself with the many souls I've gathered. Through the flames, she reassures me that the place I've found is indeed Blighttown - I need only make it to the bottom, and I can reach the second Bell of Awakening. It's strange, how close it feels, since the first was about as away from the Firelink Shrine as this one is from here, possibly closer; but after all this, I'm glad to be almost there.


	17. Chapter 16

On the way back down, a rat gives me a Humanity sprite. It registers with me that I have a lot of these, along with the three inside me…I shouldn't need to do anything while Hollowed for a while. This time, I stop before the gate to talk to Domhnall.

"Aye, siwmae!" he says brightly at the sight of me. "We meet again!"

I check his wares, and after a moment's hesitation, I decide to buy a couple more gold pine resins - it might be a waste, but a way to power up my sword could come in handy at any time.

"Hmm," he says as he hands them over. "Well, I'm certain we will make a good trade eventually…So, I am willing to share some tips. The cursed Ghosts of New Londo are formidable foes. To face them, you will require special arms…Or a cursed body. The quickest way to be cursed? Try the bug-eyed lizards in the sewer. Desperate measures, to be sure…"

So that's what those creatures' smoke does - it doesn't poison, it curses. But what is being cursed like? The way Domhnall says it, it doesn't sound like it's the same as going Hollow…what other horrible fate could there be? "Thank you," is all I say, and I turn to go. He thanks me for the "fine trade", and indirectly asks me to come back soon. Then I descend back into Blighttown.

Sure enough, the club ghoul is back - all of them are. The first one I kill leaves its club behind, and I pick it up and inspect it; yes, there's poison in it, but it seems more like a poison that's soaked into the wood over time from the surroundings than poison that was deliberately applied. Discovering this makes me all the more wary of whatever's to come, if there's enough poison just in the air to have this effect.

The second ghoul I kill drops a dung pie. I can feel the toxicity just from looking at it; maybe I can use it to toxify an enemy, but I don't really want to hold it, so I leave it be. The third ghoul drops one as well, but I still won't take it. At last I'm back to the lizard-men, who are no trouble to me now; and as it turns out, whatever it was that was spitting toxin at me before is permanently gone.

This time, I try to take the correct path; I go left, but after smashing through some sticks and pots, I find myself at a dead end that simply looks out over the whole area - which is an impressive view, but not all that helpful just now. Before I get a chance to turn around, a lizard-man sneaks up behind me and grabs me, then starts gnawing at my shoulder; its teeth are small, but its grip is tight, and I have a bunch of little bite marks when I finally kill it. All I've gained from going this way is a bridge right next to the unstable one I took last time, and this one _is_ stable.

As a lizard-man wielding a dead body climbs the ladder I'm now sure I need to go down, I feel some souls pour into me randomly; all I can assume is that one of the lizard-men slipped and fell to their deaths. On the way over here, I saw a couple of lizard-men cross the unstable bridge without it moving - if one of them can't keep its footing, I'm uneasy about how well I'll fare. When I kill the lizard-man that made it up to me, it drops a tiny soulmass. Down the ladder, I once again become annoyed at how dark and haphazardly-constructed this place is - I'm not sure where to go. From here, I can jump down to a spot beside a dead body, but the spot in question _definitely_ doesn't look trustworthy - most of the time, the planks make up for in number what they lack in sturdiness, but this particular spot is thin, none of the planks of wood really even touching each other. My caution rewards me, as I find an easy-to-miss bridge around the spot, and from the corpse, I get a medium-sized soulmass.

Beyond this is a single, thick wooden beam that constitutes the entirety of a bridge; I cross it slowly, but nothing goes awry. Across this, I see a lizard-man hiding in a large pot, its head and weapon hand sticking out; I swing at it, wondering if it really expected to deceive me, even in this poor lighting. Another lizard-man comes to back up the first, but both are cut down easily. Now I can choose between a ladder and a short jump down to a slightly lower level. As I stand at the edge of the short jump deliberating, I feel another bunch of souls rush into me, making me both relieved at having one less enemy to fight and worried at just how treacherous this place will become.

Finally, I decide on the ladder - if it's wrong, I can just climb back up. At the bottom is an open area of wooden platforms all bunched together; next to this is a thick, stable stone bridge…and in the middle of the bridge is a dormant bonfire. I light it, glad for both it and the moment of stable footing, and sit down to rest, using one of the humanities within me to kindle the flame so I can refill my Estus Flask to the brim. Then I stand up again and cross to the other side of the stone bridge, which seems to be going back the way I came.

Back on the wooden planks, the only place to go is down a tall ladder; I slide to near the bottom, when a lizard-man climbs on and swipes at me with its blade. After a couple of blows, I manage to climb out of its range, and at the top, I turn around and start swinging at it. A second lizard-man comes up behind it, and when I finish off the first, the second grabs me and starts chewing on me; I manage to fight it off, my blue tearstone ring generating a glowing aura around me, and defeat it. Safe, I take a swig from my refilled Estus Flask, then go down. There doesn't appear to be much down here; to my left is a longer bridge that I definitely don't trust, and to my right is a narrow wooden beam leading to a tiny platform with a dead body on it. To be thorough, I check the dead body, and on it, I find not one, not two, but _three_ blooming purple moss clumps, which I take gratefully. Then I go back for the bridge I don't trust.

Sure enough, it's unsteady. Every few steps, it sways and shifts underneath me; I move slowly, and stop when it starts moving, carefully keeping my balance. Without much trouble, I make it across. On the other side, a little red dog is waiting for me, and before I can even swing my sword at it, it breathes out a tremendous plume of fire. I cut it down quickly, the fire damaging me badly; a drink from my Estus Flask restores me after the little creature falls. My path clear, I go to explore the place I've now come to, and just as I start to think this is a dead end, another little red dog appears behind me and bites at me a couple of times; I manage to kill this one before it breathes fire. Knowing it must have come from somewhere, I look around again, and I find a narrow, treacherous-looking ramp that I make it down without incident. To the left is another such ramp, at the end of which is a single wooden beam leading to the spot of someone's death; the corpse has a Humanity sprite on it. Back up the other way, the floor continues just enough for me to catch a glimpse of something gleaming on a distant stone bridge that I somehow have a hard time believing I'll ever reach. A look through the binoculars tells me that it is a corpse that's sitting there, but there's nothing really useful to be gotten here. This whole path has been a dead end, which I guess leaves me to go back up and jump down onto the floor just below the space at the top of the ladder. I cross the moving bridge more quickly this time, again without trouble.

When I go back past the bonfire, before I climb the ladder, I decide to look around and see what else is here - I didn't really explore this level before. Beyond the ladder, I discover a path that leads to another stable stone bridge; here, I'm attacked by a lizard-man and two little red dogs, but these don't hinder me very much. Across the stone bridge, two more lizard-men attack, and in the chaos, it takes me a minute to register the powerful poison that's filling my system - something, somewhere in the distance, is shooting toxin at me. Once I'm aware of it, I try to hide where I think it will be blocked and finish off the two lizard-men, but while I stand here thinking I'm safe, poison bullets hit me until the toxin takes hold. I run back across the stone bridge before eating a clump of blooming purple moss; the toxin takes a lot out of me in just that short time. Once I get back, a lizard-man jumps down from somewhere and attacks me, and while it goes down easily, I'm starting to feel a bit threatened by all this.

Finally, I decide to go back up the ladder and make the small jump, like I originally planned - I'll probably end up in the same place anyway. Up top, the lizard-man in the pot is back, and I slice it up quickly. Then I make the jump…and find myself back in the same place I had to warp back from last time. Annoyed, and glad I found a bonfire nearby, I use my second-to-last Homeward Bone. I'm running very low on these, and make a note not to use the last one unless it's an absolute guaranteed emergency.

The lizard-man and the two little red dogs are even less of an obstacle than before; one of the dogs manages to breathe fire, but it misses me. I can hear something smashing stuff above me, but when nothing comes for me, I decide to ignore it and run along the other stone bridge again, this time ready to keep the toxin spitter in mind. During the fight with the two lizard-men, I actually catch a good glimpse of whatever's being shot at me, and can make out that it's actually a dart, as if from a blowgun. Once I've gotten a certain distance, however, the toxic darts stop coming, and when I pass the lizard-men to look for the source, it's nowhere to be found. There's nothing for it, so I shrug it off and proceed along a few shaky-looking platforms that end up not shaking. From here, I go down a narrow ramp, and when I look down, I see an enormous, pulsating, writhing, slimy _thing_.

I stop. The thing is red and grey, and objectively gross; its many slimy legs appear to be latched over the edge of a tunnel of some sort, spanning the entire opening, little tentacles squirming at either end of its octopus-like body. It looks intimidating, but I can hear the faintest echo of laughter through my pendant; it's not a threat. So, I climb down the ladder I've reached without worry. I'm getting pretty far down, now - I can actually make out the muddy swamp below.

On the floor I come to, I find only a corpse bearing a large soulmass. A lizard-man climbs up a ladder to get to me, which is how I know where to go next; when I kill it, I discover that, interestingly, the blades these things use when they aren't using spears or corpses are actually broken swords, like what most ragged Hollows use. Down the next ladder, I find another creature that looks like a little tree, and I register the toxin building up in my body - this is one of the creatures with toxic blowdarts. The toxin takes hold at about the same time I knock the creature off the edge; I eat one of my blooming purple moss clumps, incredibly grateful to have found some on my way down here.

The wooden planks wrap around a stone turret, and soon, I find myself on the very bridge I spied through the binoculars earlier. That corpse I saw is carrying an Eagle Shield - a greatshield, relatively light, but I won't use it because it's impossible to parry with them. There's nothing else this way, and I re-orient myself around the monstrosity I'm aiming to reach and climb back up the ladder. It takes me a minute to find the ladder that will actually bring me where I want to go; a lizard-man finds it at about the same time that I do, and I wait for it to climb up so I can kill it and descend.

When I get to the bottom, I feel a bunch of souls flow into me, and somehow, one clump of purple moss and one blooming clump of purple moss land right in front of me. Something must have slipped, somewhere, somehow…actually, all of a sudden, I realize that this must be the bounty from the blowdart-thing I knocked off earlier - I never did get the souls from that. It must have been a long fall, and how I got these moss clumps is questionable, but I decide to let it go. A few steps away, I find a corpse with a large-ish soulmass, and then, at last, I'm up next to the squirming thing, which I can now hear is making squishy slimy noises.

When I get too close, it takes one taloned leg off the wall it's latched onto and stabs me, catching me by surprise; I need to take it down from a distance, probably with fire, and I can't get near enough to use my combustion spell, so the firebombs I've accumulated throughout my travels - ten of them - will have to do. The first one I throw misses; I get a bit closer, realign myself, and try again, aiming for the center of its body that faces the center of the opening it's covering. This time, I hit it, but this seems to have no effect. Getting a bit closer, I try again; it starts thrashing, and for a moment I think I've beaten it, but then I realize it's just trying to hit me, the angry noises it makes while flailing around arguably more disturbing than the ones it makes when it's at rest. A few more firebombs do nothing, and at one point, the random waving of its taloned leg hits me. I'm confused now…she made it seem like this would be easy, but I can't even harm it. I decide to try until I have one firebomb left, then save the last one in case I need it later; this fails, so I turn around and leave the thing be.

Down the ramp where I found the corpse is what turns out to be the next level I'm supposed to go. A giant ghoul, like the ones up above, comes at me from a cave in the wall; it's not so much dangerous as in a dangerous terrain, and it's so hard to keep my bearings that I slip and fall off the edge. Annoyed, I revive myself with one of my Humanity sprites, then jog back over recklessly, killing things in my path without care for the hits I take. And of course, the mysterious toxin spitter that vanished before is back now, and I have to lure the lizard-men away for my own safety, and it vanishes again by the time I get back to look. When I get down close to where I was, I kill a lizard-man, when another sneaks up behind me and kills me, costing me a good 13,000 souls.

Now I'm angry. I revive myself again, then charge out; I have basically nothing to lose now. When I get poisoned with toxin, while trying to dig out a blooming purple moss clump, a lizard-man sneaks up from behind me and kills me. Again, revive myself, then go; this time, I decide to put my blooming purple moss clumps in the easy-access spot my last firebomb is currently taking up. I hang back where the lizard-man snuck up on me, waiting for it to come, but it takes so long that for a moment I give up. Of course, it comes eventually, and when it does, I kill it. Then I get down to the last place I died, thinking I'm ready for the two lizard-men, but I get reckless, and they kill me.

When I'm back at the bonfire again, I hear her speak to me, suggesting that perhaps I rest. I don't want to - I want to go charging back out there - but I've done that several times and failed, so I unhappily concede that she's right; I use one of my Humanity sprites to restore myself, then lie down and rest on the hard stone, her presence keeping me warm and safe.


	18. Chapter 17

Once I've rested, my temper has simmered down, and I'm ready to proceed with caution. I fight off the lizard-man and the two dogs, then hold back and wait for the one behind me; I actually see it coming this time, and once it's mostly dead, I knock it off the edge. Back in the range of the hidden toxin spitter, I run _forward_ , instead of back, and soon, the danger from it stops; the two lizard-men in my way don't bother me, either. When I get to the ladder, though, toxic darts start hitting me, and I'm poisoned before I know it. The darts seem to stop coming when I'm at the bottom of the ladder, so I eat a blooming purple moss clump there, and am proven correct. The weird, random wooden walls and beams make a network that can't be discerned as navigable or not from a distance, but I've finally figured out that the darts are coming from above me, so I make a note to find a way up before I continue going down.

A lizard-man climbs up the next ladder I'm supposed to take, and when it gets to the top, I try parrying and riposting; this actually doesn't quite kill it, but a light blow from my sword finishes it off. Down the ladder, I find my death spot and recover, and it only takes a second of looking around before I find a ladder leading up that I haven't taken before. It's a very long ladder, and I climb up and up and up, wondering if I'm undoing progress I've made. Up at the top, sure enough, I find one of the toxin spitters, and I cut it down easily; two clumps of purple moss are my reward. Also up here, I find another cave in the cliff face that walls off the entirety of one side of this whole network; inside are two lizard-men, one with a corpse, one with a broken sword. It takes me a minute to figure out that a third one has also snuck up behind me; I cut down one, but I'm badly injured, and when I try to take a swig from my Estus Flask, one of the lizard-men takes the opportunity to grab me and start chewing on me. I die in its jaws.

When I'm back at the bonfire, at least I know the danger of toxin is gone, and I'm a bit more confident in heading out again, using a Humanity sprite before I do to revive myself. There's only one left on me now, and the one Twin Humanities; I've been reckless. In the fight with the lizard-men and the two dogs this time, I have to stop myself from making rash decisions a couple of times; one of the dogs falls off the edge after a lucky swing kills the other, and the lizard-man manages to grab me and chew on me once before I push it off me and kill it. Immediately, I turn around in preparation, and this time, I can see where the lizard-man that's been sneaking up behind me comes from; I jog around the random wooden wall and eliminate it.

Without fear of toxin, I can be more tactical with the lizard-men ahead; I cut them both down easily. I make it down the next ladders before the lizard-man below finds it, then climb up the ladder towards my death spot. This time, I wait for the one that snuck up behind me last time; as it turns out, it followed me from before the bottom of the long ladder. Once it climbs up, I hit it until it falls off the edge. When I turn around, one of the lizard-men from the cave - and only one - comes out at me, meaning I can cut them all down one-by-one. Inside the cave, I recover, kill the last lizard-man, and then proceed forward to see what's here; what I find is the same circular shaft I entered when I first opened the gates to Blighttown, with a similar setup. After a moment, I slip and fall off the outside edge, but a lucky beam catches me, and I'm able to jump down to the platform that a ladder would have led me to anyway…and where I find myself is the other end of the tunnel blocked by the slimy monstrosity.

I can see it moving up ahead, and hear its squishy noises. She managed to kill it from the side with a lucky pyromancy shot, but walking into it like this is something she can't prepare me for. Not wanting to take risks, I ready my last remaining firebomb and proceed forward carefully.

Nothing happens when I reach it; I throw a firebomb at it, to no apparent effect. At a loss, I simply start slashing at it; it makes no attempt to fight back, though I don't appear to be damaging it, either. After a minute, however, it suddenly lets out an earsplitting scream and disintegrates. With that, I wonder if it really was a lucky pyromancy shot that she killed it with, or if she just wore it down like this without knowing it.

It's out of the way now, and I can jump down to the exact place I climbed up from. Where the creature was, I find a corpse, and when I put my hand on it, a strange jolt of power rushes through me to my pyromancy flame. Curious, I review my stock of spells, and discover I've obtained a new one: Power Within, a spell that boosts a person's strength while eating away at their life force; I doubt I'll ever use it, but it's almost gratifying just to have it, like a trophy.

Then, I finally proceed to the cave where I died a long time ago. This time, I take out my pyromancy flame, to see if I can burn the ghoul more effectively than I can cut it; as it turns out, the answer is yes, but only slightly. Also, I run forward a bit too far - hoping to give myself more room to maneuver - and attract the attention of a lizard-man as well. Once the fight is out of the cave, I need to turn my back on both monsters to find the ramp back up to a more open area - again, I can hardly figure out where I'm going in these dark, cramped quarters. I use combustion on both of them, and eventually, they both fall. Inside the cave, I find myself back in the same empty circular building where I found the chute to the slimy thing and, again, presumably where I first came in. It seems like this place is central to all of Blighttown…In any case, I climb down a ladder, and find a hole in the wall that is blocked with white light. Without concern, I traverse it, and it dissipates behind me.

What I find here is a couple of small platforms and long ladders leading down. After descending two, I find another entrance to the circular building that has nothing through it, and beyond that, a new creature attacks me - a large insectile thing of some sort, a huge blob with too many legs of different sizes, one or two of which have fingers, and wings it can't use. It goes down with three slashes from my sword, and that's when I notice the cloying stink of a swamp. Something about the smell seems unhealthy - this isn't just a swamp as in a wet forest, it smells more potent, more noxious than just mud. More ladders lead downwards, and at one point, I find the corpse of a lizard-man that must have fallen from above, probably one of the ones I deliberately knocked off the edge of a platform. The platform this is on turns out to be just a bit lower than the platform with the next ladder down, so I'll need to drop; soon, toxin starts spiking through my system again, and I make a mental note to look out for the next spitter. On the following level down, a convenient wooden wall blocks the darts; I can see them piercing the planks, stopping just short of punching through. I orient where the spitter is in my mind, then do my best to hurry in its direction; I find and cut it down easily, and get a clump of purple moss for my efforts. Around a corner, in a small alcove between the cliff face and some wooden walls, I find a corpse…wearing a wanderer's regalia and carrying a falchion.

This gives me pause. It's not her, I know it's not her, but seeing a body dressed in these clothes twists my heart all the same. While I stand in place, holding the garments in my hands, remembering and hurting, a couple of large red flies sneak up on me. They don't do anything, and I can't tell what exactly they are, but I have to swing my sword from all sorts of angles before I hit them - they apparently came from below me. Once they're both dead, I take a few more moments to continue what I was doing, then sigh and turn to go.

Down another ladder, I'm suddenly assaulted by bugs. The big red flies - _mosquitos_ \- shoot blood sprays at me, and the bigger insectile things apparently have fire whips. The muddy stench gets stronger, and I look out across a swamp to see two more mosquitos giving chase; I wait for them, but when I try to swing at them, I fall off the edge of the platform I'm standing on, and the next thing I know, I'm knee-deep in mud that's giving off poisonous fumes. A couple of insectile things are down here, and it takes me a moment to even get my bearings; by the time I start running through the muck, poison has taken hold in my system. I round a corner, enter a tunnel, and to my relief, find a bonfire; I light it and sit down, the warmth washing the poison away. It's only once I'm safely resting that I notice I somehow gained a humanity within me at some point; this is convenient, as I use it to kindle the bonfire so I can refill my Estus Flask all the way.

Then I stand. I've made it to the bottom of the place, and now I'm in a swamp, I've gathered that much. The tunnel I'm in, however, feels like a giant culvert, and it leads inwards, the floor slanting upward slightly; I decide to go in before I go back out. At the top of the sloping stone floor, I discover a metal grate with a big hole in it; through this, I find that I've finally reached the bottom of the circular building I've been going in and out of this whole time. From here, the bottom floor is slightly sunken in, but I hop down and find a solitary treasure chest on the far side. Inside the treasure chest is a single stone scale that I realize is one from the ancient, everlasting dragons.

Such an ancient relic…I take the moment of safety to wonder where this came from. I know the stories as well as anyone: three Lords who found souls of power - Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight; the Witch of Izalith; and Nito, First of the Dead - challenged the everlasting dragons who held dominion over the land; Seath the Scaleless betrayed his kin and joined the Lords, and with their combined forces, the everlasting dragons were no more, and the Age of Fire began. The legends say that Gwyn's lightning spears peeled the stone scales from the dragons…I wonder if this is really from that battle all that time ago.

Oh well, no matter really; I tuck it away and head back out. A short ladder gives me a way up, and I pass the bonfire and return to the poisonous swamp. Soon, I notice that, in addition to making movement more difficult, it's my disturbance of the mud that releases the poisonous fumes that quickly enter my system. From the nearby fire, she tells me to take off my blue tearstone ring and don the rusty iron ring I found in the Northern Undead Asylum; I oblige, then try to proceed, and find that somehow, the muck doesn't make it difficult to move anymore, though it's still poisonous. Grateful, I try to keep to the edges, on the rises out of the poisonous mud. Mosquitos seem to be coming constantly from across the swamp, and I have to keep cutting them down.

Then, a little ways away, a disturbance fills the air, and runes tell me that dark spirit Maneater Mildred has invaded. When I can't see it immediately, I stay where I am, killing off mosquitos, waiting for this spirit to show up; after a minute, it does, red phantom with a giant butcher's knife, apparently female and naked except for undergarments and a sack on her head. She's not very strong, and I fight her and win easily; I get one liquid humanity from her, as well as three Humanity sprites and the butcher's knife. A lot of souls reward my efforts also, and I jog back to the bonfire to strengthen myself; I focus on increasing my body's resistance to poison. Through the flames, she tells me not to try to cross the swamp, nor to climb any ladders I might find - my goal, she tells me, can be most easily reached by hugging the wall, it's a big white anthill of sorts that I'll know when I see it.

This in mind, I jog through the muck again. I get poisoned before too long, but it hardly saps at my strength at all as I press on. Along the way, I pass a few insectile creatures and kill them; a corpse I happen upon carries a large titanite shard, and the mosquitos, of course, continue to chase me - one even manages to poison me after I've used some purple moss. At last, I make it to a mound of light-colored ground with something like twigless dead tree branches dotting it in an almost forest-like density. As she told me to, I climb it, away from the mud; about halfway up, I find a hole that leads down into the earth. Along the way there, I start to notice that the ground is turning whiter and whiter, and also getting sticker; just before I enter, I realize that it's actually coated in spider webbing of some kind.

Inside, I find that it is indeed like a spider's nest of sorts - eggs are plastered onto the ceiling with thick, sticky strands, and everything is covered in spiderwebs. Down the web-coated cave, I find a couple of twitching, lumpy things that don't acknowledge my presence. A closer look reveals that they're actually people, _living_ people, with huge mounds of eggs growing on their backs; they lie flat on their stomachs, their hands pressed together as they continuously mouth prayers. For a moment, I wonder if I'm supposed to put them out of their misery, but through my pendant, she tells me to leave them be. Further down, I find a wall of white light, with a summon sign near it - the shadow of the phantom it summons appears to be the very same dark spirit I just defeated earlier. I am of course tempted to call on it - her - but decide against it; my love won this battle on her own, on her first try, without any help, and I will do the same. Of course, unlike me, she conquered the Catacombs before she even got here…

When I traverse the light, I find myself in an enormous, open space, the ceiling thoroughly plastered with eggs. From around a corner, an enormous spider-like creature with spikes for lower legs stomps out and reveals itself. It's big and bloated and red, and fire burns along its back. More disturbing, though, is that, embedded in the top of its head, is the upper body - all the way down to the top of the legs - of a naked woman, holding a sword in her right hand, combing through her red-brown hair with her crimson, clawlike fingernails, a single metal bracelet on her right upper arm her only apparel. Her pale lips curve into a nasty smirk.

The thing charges at me, and I charge at her. When she raises her sword, a voice shouts at me through my pendant, _Dodge in! Dodge_ in _!_ Trusting my guiding star, I run in instead of back, right beside the bloated spider head (is it really a head, though, considering the human part still has her own?), and sure enough, when the abomination swings her sword, a line of flames misses me; I slash with my own sword in return, and though I do little damage, I haven't taken any.

From there, the battle becomes a mess of fire and dodging in and away again, slashing whenever I have a chance. The grotesque spider mouth spews lava, sometimes one splash, sometimes a whole arc of splattered liquid fire. It can also stomp with its spiked legs, which causes plumes of fire to burst from the ground around the spikes, and occasionally, it can explode when the human part leans down and hugs the spider head she's on; the legs never hit me, but the explosions damage me badly, though they don't kill me. Not only does dodging in to avoid the sword and away to avoid the lava give me the chance to attack, it also gives me plenty of opportunity to heal with my Estus Flask. I'm out of Estus by the end of the battle, but after a lot of work, the monster falls.

Like the Moonlight Butterfly, a shimmering golden soul is left behind, along with a Twin Humanities. Looking at the soul, I learn that the monster's name was Quelaag, who was a daughter of the Witch of Izalith before she was turned into a chaos demon. The souls I get from the victory are an enormous rush, so I stow the golden soul away without using it. Then, at last, I'm free to go out the other side of the cavern.

Only now, when I can catch my breath, do I notice that the floor of this cavern is sparingly paved with square tiles, and when I get to the other end, the exit is a set of stone steps leading up to a stone spiral staircase around a crumbling stone brick tower that I come to. The top of the stairs leads to a doorway into a room scattered with spider eggs, and down a few more steps, I enter…a bell tower.

I put away my weapons and remove my helmet in reverence - I've reached the second Bell of Awakening, at last. Slowly, I walk around an eggy hole in the middle of the floor to a lever, and after savoring the moment, I pull it.

The bell rings. Fittingly, the bonging sound is very low-pitched, but it echoes all around, all the way up from the depths in which it's housed. Through the sound, a vision flashes before my eyes: A giant, pulling an enormous rusted chain through a wall, and a gate - the gate I recognize as being the one that stymied Siegmeyer of Catarina - slowly opening.

When the bell stops ringing, a handful of Homeward Bone ash drops out of it into my hands. It _is_ a bit of a trek back, even to the bonfire by the swamp, so I use the prize right away. At the bonfire, I strengthen myself with the souls I got from Quelaag. Through the flames, I feel her pride; she was much stronger when she finally made it down here, and the fact that I decided not to accept help and still won on my first try impresses her - though, in truth, I probably wouldn't have made it without that one tip she gave me at the start. Apparently, there's also a lot more stuff down here in the swamp that I haven't explored, not including the other set of wooden platforms I passed and didn't climb; though I know I should start climbing up and out, I decide to stay down here and explore a little while.

Of course, I'm quickly poisoned, but again, the poison hardly saps at my strength at all, and I decide to simply ignore it. There are corpses everywhere down here, some of them in the mud. Almost immediately, I find one with a large soulmass, and another with a tattered set of clothes and a spell my pyromancy flame absorbs called Poison Mist - apparently, I can poison things myself now. The mosquitos are more of a problem than the poisonous mud, and I also find some giant leeches here and there. Other treasures I find down here include two more large titanite shards (one from a corpse, one from a giant leech), a Server, a green titanite shard, and another large soulmass. I also find an oddly flat root on a huge tree that leads to a cavity in the wood containing a corpse holding a shabby wooden plank shield; one of the walls seems off, and when I strike it, it turns out to be an illusion, revealing a treasure chest containing a Twin Humanities - the third in my collection now.

Once I'm done looking around in the mud, I go back to the bonfire to refill my Estus Flask - which I've been using mostly in place of purple moss - and head for the wooden ramp I passed earlier and didn't climb. This leads to a ladder to a platform next to a huge lift like a water wheel, wooden platforms sticking out of a continuously turning conveyer belt of sticks and rope. Jumping onto one of the platforms brings me up high, and a single ladder that isn't easy to find takes me higher. Up here, a couple of mosquitos catch up to me, and one manages to poison me; while I'm fighting them, I also notice a bit of toxin spike through my system, and I make a mental note to watch for toxin spitters. There's a ladder here, and also a path of platforms; I take the path first, which turns into just a twisted wooden branch at one point between planks, and here, I'm vulnerable to the toxin-spitters. I cross the path anyway, and pass another ladder to find the remains of a crimson-clad sorcerer with a special metal catalyst long and sharp enough to be a spear, and a treasure chest containing a Remedy spell meant to counter poison - useful, but I won't be at a bonfire to attune this until I start climbing out.

Having thus reached a dead end, I head back, taking the second ladder I passed first, but keeping the other in mind. This leads to a small platform with another ladder, and at the top of this, there's nothing apart from an insectile creature. That route exhausted, I climb back down, and I try to cross the branch path, but I slip and fall onto another wooden conveyor belt; I try to find a place I can jump to from here, but I don't see anything in either direction, and while I try, the toxin spitter gets me. Desperately, I jump off to a slanted roof, but there's nothing here for my boots to find purchase on, and I fall to my death.

Back at the bonfire, I'm equal parts annoyed and glad - I got everything on the other side of the branch, and a use of one of my Twin Humanities gets me right back to how much humanity I had when I fell after I use one to restore myself, but that was a foolish mistake. I climb back up with little hope of recovering what I lost, but when I check, I see that my death spot is up on the branch; I risk toxin to carefully get it back, and though it does infect me, I eat a blooming purple moss clump once I'm back safely, and there's no harm done. At last, I climb the first ladder I passed before. Expecting toxin spitters, I hurry, and I find them - I manage to cut my way through three, each carrying one clump of purple moss and all standing along a narrow ledge high in a stone building, before I get toxified by one standing on a platform I can't reach. I eat the last of my blooming purple moss clumps, equip the tin wand I just found, and cast Soul Arrow at it, having forgotten to attune Great Soul Arrow. It takes three, and I have to keep dodging behind a corner to avoid getting poisoned, but it falls, and a purple moss clump somehow ends up landing right in front of me.

Now I can look around. There's a ladder at the back of this big stone room I've found, and down it is a bunch of little red dogs; they don't bother me too much, though I'm getting worn down by the time I fight off the last two. At the end of something like an alley that branches off to the right, I find a grate behind which is a body carrying a Fire Keeper Soul; I take it. I go to the end of the room, which reveals that the turning wheels are indeed water wheels of some sort, if the structure of the sloping stone under my feet is any indication, but there's nothing else for me. Exploration done, I take my last Homeward Bone back - I know I said I would save it for emergencies, but at this point, there won't be any - and at last start climbing up. On the way, I find one more corpse with a large soulmass. The bugs that guard the start of the way back up are stronger than I expect, though, and they kill me.

That's not much progress lost, and I'll be more ready this time; I use a Humanity sprite to revive myself and try again. This time, I make it up a steep wooden ramp and to the ladders. I have to fight my way through quite a few large insectile things, some mosquitos catch up to me in places, and I lose track of where I'm going once or twice, but it's not too long before I'm back to the spot where the white light was. Just inside, I hear the lizard-man above growl when it notices me, and I back off to let it climb down the ladder, then carefully kill it. The footing is treacherous down here, but no disasters occur. Unfortunately, when I climb the ladder, the club-wielding ghoul is too much for me, and I die.

I know I can make it out of here - I _have_ to. Another Humanity to revive myself, and another try. Since I'm in a rush now, I try to run past the bug things instead of fighting them, and they overwhelm and kill me, costing me about 15,000 souls and two humanities.

Now I'm annoyed, but I remember what happened the last time I let my temper get to me, and I revive myself with one of my Twin Humanities and make another try, being careful this time. It's the mosquitos, more than the big flame-spouting buggy things, that make it difficult, continuously coming out of nowhere, attacking me from behind and distracting me. But I make it back up this time, and I remember to be careful of the ghoul. The lizard-man manages to grab me and chew on me a little bit, but isn't a problem; the ghoul doesn't go down easily, but I defeat it. Then, at last, I'm back in the territory of the lizard-men. On the way up, I of course stop at the bonfire just to be safe; the climb back up is mostly uneventful, though it's not until I'm almost out that I remember to take off my rusted iron ring and put my blue tearstone ring back on. Shortly after that, I reach the three ghouls that guard the entrance to Blighttown…and they quickly kill me.

Still, I've made a lot of progress, and that alone is enough to keep me from getting discouraged as I climb back up again. I'm up the first ladder before I realize I forgot to revive my body; I decide not to do it now, instead waiting until I reach the bonfire in the sewers. One of the lizard-men on the way up seems to have trouble climbing down a ladder - it gets on it, stops for a minute, then climbs back off. After watching this for a little while, I get on the ladder and punch at it; this convinces it to drop down, and I kill it. My blue tearstone ring saves me from being the final lizard-man's lunch, and then I recover what I lost and reach the three ghouls. This time, one of them comes for me before the second has fully realized I'm there, and though the second notices me soon, I'm able to dodge around them just enough to kill them both one at a time. Both drop dung pies; I leave these be. The third one goes down a bit more easily, though not without a fight; while I'm fighting the third one, a lizard-man sneaks up behind me, but it doesn't get me. Fighting two-on-one, I kill them both; the lizard-man drops a tiny soulmass, and the ghoul drops another dung pie that I don't take.

I remember the slimes, and re-equip my pyromancy flame so I can burn them up. And then, at long last, I'm climbing out of Blighttown and into the sewers. The rotten stink of this place is a welcome breath of fresh air compared to the noxious fumes of the swamp, and the filthy water washes the poisonous mud off my boots. In passing, I notice that Domnhall of Zena is gone, but I don't think much of it. Up at the bonfire, I revive my Hollowed body with the leftover humanity from the last Twin Humanities I used, and then I climb up and out. On the way, the black slime swallows me again while I'm letting the last of the mud rinse off, surprising me since I thought it was permanently gone; two bursts of flame, and it's dead, no problem.

Before I know it, I'm back at Firelink Shrine. After the remaining Hollows along the path are dead, I stand still and take several deep, full breaths of the clean mountain air, expelling everything before taking in more, purging my lungs of all the disgusting rot I inhaled on my way to the second Bell of Awakening. I'm not entirely sure what I'm supposed to do next - go through the gate that just opened, I assume - but before anything else, I remember the clean pool of water in the ruins, and decide to completely wash off there before I go. First things first, though: I go to the bonfire…and find it dead.

The bonfire is dead. When I try to light it, nothing happens; something's missing. I go down to see the Fire Keeper, to have her reinforce my Estus Flask, but when I get there, I discover that she's dead, too. On her corpse is a ragged set of dingy clothes…and a Black Eye Orb. She didn't just die - she was murdered, and now I have the means to avenge whoever killed her. But who could have done it? When I turn around, I notice that Knight Lautrec isn't there. My misgivings about him from before rise, and I wonder…

No matter. I can't rest at the bonfire, but I can at least brag to my nameless acquaintance. I go up and approach him, weapons away, helmet off, smirking.

"Did you ring the second bell?" he asks me, seeming oddly distressed.

"Yes," I reply proudly.

"That is incredible, I must say," he says, "But now, we have a new problem. It's noisy, it snores, and its breath is lethal. This is no laughing matter, I tell you!"

Lethal breath? I wonder if I can't tell because I just climbed out of Blighttown. Now I'm all the more determined to wash off, and I jog up to the pool.

Only…the pool isn't there.

The floor beneath the pool has opened up, and from it, a huge, wrinkly, gray head and neck, with orange eyes, lipless teeth, and fleshy appendages coming out of either side of its human-like nose like a mustache, has risen. It doesn't appear to have a body - either that, or it doesn't have a neck; it looks kind of like a withered, fleshy snake. Its flat teeth are constantly grinding, but I can't actually hear them even though I should. Despite its rather disturbing appearance, I approach the creature.

"Ahh, hello," he greets me, his words oddly clear considering his lipless mouth. "Was it you who rang the Bell of Awakening? I am the primordial serpent, Kingseeker Frampt, close friend of the Great Lord Gwyn. Chosen Undead, who has rung the Bell of Awakening. I wish to elucidate your fate. Do you seek such enlightenment?"

I blink. Enlightenment? That's what I've wanted all along! "Yes," I reply with certainty.

"Very well. Then I am pleased to share," he says. "Chosen Undead. Your fate…is to succeed the Great Lord Gwyn. So that you may link the Fire, cast away the Dark, and undo the curse of the Undead. To this end, you must visit Anor Londo, and acquire the Lordvessel."

Succeed the Great Lord? I feel my eyes widen. To succeed _the_ Great Lord Gwyn, most renowned of the Lords, virtually king of kings…It almost seems too good to be true. Despite my awe, my instinct tells me something's not right. "I…Excuse me," I say.

"I am pleased to see you well," Frampt says, almost jokingly. "Is it something urgent?"

"What…What am I doing?" I ask.

"Those who seek the Realm of Lords must brave Sen's Fortress, a deadly house of traps," he tells me. "Many have gone before you, but none have returned. Fate has chosen you, but proceed with caution."

"I…will…" I say slowly. His constant gnashing teeth distract me; I remember tales of the primordial serpents - imperfect dragons, who will eat anything, whose gluttony drives them to consume even prey larger than their own selves. I wonder…

Randomly, I take something out of my bottomless box, which I can open here for some reason: the Lloyd's Talismans I picked up so long ago, all four of them, are what my hand finds. I hold them out, and Frampt takes them in his mouth without a word, grinding them into dust with an odd, almost intimidating hissing growl. Then, from the dust, I feel souls flow into me. I can feed this creature junk, and he will give me souls in return. Incredible.

It takes a while to empty out all the stuff I'll never use, most of it weapons and armor I don't want or that simply aren't worth anything; he takes it all, his hiss/growl with each feeding soon grating on my nerves but not enough to get me to stop. When at last I'm done, I bid farewell.

"Farewell," he says. "Chosen Undead. I remain here, and await thee."

Nodding, I turn and go; I now have an incredible amount of souls, but no bonfire at which to use them. I buy the most powerful pyromancy spell Laurentius offers (a splash-damage fire orb) and then I decide that, before anything else, I need to talk to Andre - not just because Sen's Fortress is near there, but because I'm in need of some smithing. As I climb back up, though, I notice a figure on the underside of the bridge I take to get to Undead Burg - the place that's impossible to escape from without some sort of magic. Before jumping to investigate, I remember that the near-Hollow woman at the end of the waterway sold Homeward Bones, so I go buy one. When I bid her farewell, she says, "Much obliged. I think I like you!" and giggles some more; I will need to be desperate before I speak to her again. Then I jump down and find that the person I saw is none other than Domhnall of Zena.

"Aye, siwmae," he says. "I didn't expect to meet anybody here. I suppose great minds think alike, eh?" He chuckles.

I smile. "Let's see what you have here," I say.

He doesn't have any more gold pine resin, so I'm glad I bought that from him when I did; he does, however, have a Master Key - a key that will fit any regular lock. I'll never need to find keys again, except for very important things…I'm not sure how many locked doors there are left in Lordran, but I buy it.

"Hmm," he says as he hands them over. "You are a fine trading partner. Rumor it may be, but I have heard of a surviving ancient dragon who resides in this land. A coterie of Undead serves the dragon, as they train to become dragons themselves. Sounds unlikely, but you never know, do you?"

An ancient dragon? A fond smile tugs at my lips. She would have loved that, fought through any opposition to reach the dragon and become part of its 'coterie'; she loved dragons…

But I don't say this, and simply bid farewell. He says what he always does, and I use the Homeward Bone to return to…the sewer bonfire. I slap my forehead. Of course, the Firelink Shrine bonfire is dead, so this would bring me back here. Still, it's not too much trouble to climb my way back out, and this time, I head straight for the Undead Parish - I even attune my new pyromancy spell and try on the slimes along the way, and am very gratified by the results.

Any junk I pick up along the way is no longer junk, but food for Frampt. It's as I climb, though, that I think about what he said to me…that I am to be the successor of the Great Lord Gwyn. The notion still feels wrong somehow. For one thing, what have I done to earn that? A drake and a hydra remain untouched, and I've barely faced a few ghosts of the New Londo Ruins, not to mention _none_ of the skeletons in the Catacombs. I decide that, before I attempt Sen's Fortress, I will accomplish all of those things first. On the way, I slip off the edge of the underside of the drake's bridge - a stupid mistake, an embarrassing mistake, especially for a Great-Lord-to-be. Yes…I will definitely conquer everything else before attempting Sen's Fortress. I recover my power, go back to the bonfire to revive myself, and then proceed.

One of the Hollows drops a shard of titanite for me, though I'm not sure I'll be able to use it. When I get to the bonfire, I realize I have enough souls to purchase the Crest of Artorias from Andre. That, really, is one more place to conquer, one more place I _need_ to conquer before tackling Sen's Fortress, whatever's beyond that door; so, I don't strengthen myself, and buy that from him instead, as well as having him reinforce my sword twice and my Divine Morning Star once.

My business with the smith done, I go into the forest. The fresh, clear puddles of water on the way are the cleanest I've seen in a long time, and it occurs to me that if the hydra is in a lake, maybe that can become my new washing hole, now that the pool in the Firelink Shrine is gone. Cutting through the plant monsters is easy, and soon, I'm at the sealed door. The crest fits into the hole perfectly, and the doors open.

Beyond them, down some roughly-hewn steps, is a true forest; I have to force myself to go back and check myself at the nearby bonfire before I go in to see what awaits me. When I finally descend, the first thing I see is a glowing flower; I approach it, when suddenly I hear the sound of a Soul Arrow being cast. Surprised, I turn around, and see an Undead - not a Hollow, a human Undead like me - wielding a catalyst. Some movement to my right also manages to catch my eye, just barely, and I see a half-invisible knight attacking me with a large sword. Each Soul Arrow knocks my shield out of place, and when I manage to land a blow on the knight, it's hardly fazed. I'm not ready for this place; I turn and run. When I'm at the bonfire, I can still hear the knight chasing me, even after the revitalizing warmth spreads through me; I get up to see, and a few seconds later, I see the knight give up and start walking back. The fact that the bonfire didn't affect it unnerves me, and I sit down again.

Okay, so I can't go that way. Maybe I'd be better suited to try to kill the hydra - I'm much stronger now, perhaps I can take it on. Since it's close, I decide to climb down and try it. On the way, I recall the bonfire in the cave near the bottom of the ledges, and that's when I remember that there's still another place I haven't checked. I stop at the bonfire, and she again tells me not to bother with whatever lies on the other side of the cavern; I listen.

The crystal golems fall before me easily now; the hydra, however, is as formidable as ever. While I try to destroy the fourth golem so that I can focus on the hydra, its water missiles kill me. By now, though, I've faced much worse odds, so I'm not discouraged; I do, however, refrain from reviving myself just yet.

I take down the golems with no problem this time, and soon, I'm focused on the hydra. The trick will be to somehow get close to it without getting hit - it'll be easier now that I'm using Havel's Ring to help me move, but no cakewalk to be sure. Luckily, there's a boulder right along the edge of the lake with a tree growing right in front of it; between this and my shield, I take no damage from the hydra's water missiles.

A hydra has seven heads. Contrary to popular belief, cutting off a hydra's head does _not_ spawn two more in its place - quite the opposite, a hydra's heads are its weakness: Their necks can be severed about as easily as a dragon's tail, and no matter how much strength it has, once all seven of its heads are severed, it dies. With me being near to it like this, instead of just firing water missiles, it sometimes growls, then slams all seven of its heads into different places along the shore - I guess in the hope that one hits me. This gives me ample opportunity to slash at its necks; I have time for two slashes per attack, and it takes three to cut through one neck. Throughout the fight I stay here behind the rock, baiting it, and when its heads slam into the ground, I run to the nearest one and slash at it. During this, I at one point mange to find a corpse near the shore, wearing a simple knight set of armor, like what I started out with. When it's down to two heads remaining, I don't even need to hide anymore - without the middle five heads, the two side heads can't hit me with water missiles, and at no point does a head manage to bite me. Once it's down to just one head, though, this stops working: the hydra swings its head around, but not close enough for me to reach before it pulls back, no matter what I do. After a few failures, I remember my magic, and I swap out my pyromancy flame - and then my sword - for my tin catalyst. Four Great Soul Arrows destroy its last head, and with that, the monster is gone. All that's left on the shore is a single dragon scale (like the one I found at the bottom of Blighttown) and a gold ring set with a green opal that allows all types of spells to be cast more times but halves the amount of hits I can take. This ring, I stow away, not intending to use it.

And now, at last, this clear, fresh water is safe to bathe in. I tumble through it a couple of times, then strip down and run over to a place where waterfalls trickle down the rocks. It feels so good to get all the Blighttown muck off of me. I'm still Hollowed, but at the moment, I don't care; what matters is that I'm _clean_ and Hollowed. Funny how the Darksign leaves behind humanity and souls upon death, but keeps the filth…I guess, when you're Undead, you aren't supposed to care. Or perhaps the point is that it preserves the physical but leaves the nonphysical behind…?

Now both I and my armor are soaking wet, so I return to the bonfire, to dry off and revive my body. Thoughtlessly, I use my last single Humanity sprite along the way, then immediately regret doing that instead of using my Twin Humanities - the bonfire I'm at hasn't been kindled. Oh well. First, I let the soothing heat wash over my armor, steam rising from the metal and leaving it shiny and clean. I un-Hollow myself, then strip down so I can dry off the rest of me. Then I put my armor back on, and now it's time to see what's on the other side of the lake - for, surely, there's something to be found.


	19. Chapter 18

The crystal golems are back, of course, but they pose no threat, and the hydra is vanquished. I return to the lake, and looking at it now, I realize it's a _big_ lake, much bigger than I gave it credit for. On the other side of the stretch of waterfalls is a dry bit of land with a ladder on the cliff leading up. I'll look at that later; there's still a lot more of this lake to be explored.

As I travel along the shore, which goes right up against a cliff, more and more of this lake reveals itself - it turns out that at least half of it is actually in an enormous cavern. At the back of the cavern, I see another crystal golem. It starts walking towards me almost at the same moment I see it, and I wade towards it with confidence; it's not until it's closer that I realize it's a different color - a golden color - and slightly bigger than the ones before. Its attacks are also stronger, and evading it in this waist-deep water is no easy feat; a few swigs of Estus get me through it, though, and it's still not too difficult to topple. Defeated, it splashes into the water and disintegrates, and in its place…appears a young woman.

Her back is to me; I walk around her, looking at her. She's wearing a white dress, her blond hair is done up in a braid crown and lined with beads, and her hands are clasped together as though in prayer. Out of respect, I put away my weapons and remove my helmet. "Hello," I say to her. "I am Deimos of Astora."

"So, it is thou who rescueth me?" she says in a soft, gentle voice. "Most gracious, I am deeply obliged. I am Dusk of Oolacile. I cometh from an age long before thine…I can not stay here for long. So, before I disappear, allow me to ask one thing. My home, Oolacile, is the home of ancient sorceries. My hope is to pass this profound knowledge to thee, with thine approval. Would this be of assistance to thee?"

Her diction is oddly archaic, but I'm not confused as to her meaning. "Yes," I tell her, "I'm sure that would be helpful."

She smiles. "My heartfelt thanks," she says joyfully. "I am pleased beyond words. Then, I shalt engrave my signature. If thou art in need, pray summon me from my signature." She pauses for a moment, as though listening to a sound I can't hear. Then she says, "It seems that my time is done. May the great flames guide thee." And just like that, she fades away.

 _Now_ I'm confused. I wade back out of the cavern, heading back for now before climbing the ladder I saw. On the main shore, far from the stretch of waterfall, I catch a glimpse of something sparkling; I run over to it, and discover that, right next to the rock where I took refuge during the fight with the hydra, there is a summon sign - Dusk's summon sign. When I touch it, she rises from the ground.

"I am Dusk of Oolacile," she says. She notices me and smiles. "It is an honor to see thee again. I shall follow thine wishes."

"I wish to learn magic," I tell her, and she shows me what she can do.

She has five spells: Hidden Body, Cast Light, Repair, Chameleon, and Hidden Weapon. Hidden Body is a cloaking spell; Cast Light, well, casts light - something that would have helped me a lot down in Blighttown; Repair restores all weapons and armor, and is likewise a high-cost spell; Chameleon allows a person to disguise themselves as something in their surroundings; and Hidden Weapon turns a person's right-hand weapon invisible, to whatever end. Chameleon and Hidden Weapon don't strike me as particularly useful, and Repair is too expensive, but Hidden Body and Cast Light I buy without a second thought. She also has a wand from Oolacile, made of whitebark branches; it's very lightweight, and what's more, it doesn't depend on a user's intelligence to determine effectiveness. This makes me smile, thinking this probably served her very well; for me, though, I'll stick with intelligence-based catalysts.

"How did you end up here?" I ask Dusk. "What happened to you?"

"For a very long time, I was trapped within the Crystal Golem," she tells me. "From my home I was taken, and banish'd to a plane of distortion. It was there, that thou came to my rescue. Long after I had relinquished all hope. So gleeful was I, my faith reneweth."

I'm not interested in her excessive gratitude. "These spells aren't like any I've ever seen before," I comment instead. "I'm glad I found you, so that you could teach them to me."

"The sorceries of Oolacile differ from the magic of thine age," she agrees. She frowns thoughtfully. "It is difficult to explain…Oolacile sorceries are…" She chuckles awkwardly. "What doth one say? They are somewhat…of an approximation. Thine sorceries are more straightforward, negating all but thy self. Dost thou not find some fascination in these discrepancies?"

"Very," I reply. "Thank you for them. I need to go."

She nods. "If thou art in need, pray summon me again," she says. "I only wish to be of some genuine assistance…May the flames guide thee."

I wait for her to disappear, but she doesn't, instead standing there serenely. After giving her one final look, I cross the lake again to investigate what lies at the top of the ladder I saw, re-equipping myself as I go.

The ladder goes high, past the top of the waterfall to a ledge over it, where a bridge crosses the rapids. Across the bridge is another slippery ledge; a square tower of stone bricks juts out into the middle of it, but around past that is another ladder. At the far end of the ledge is a corpse with the largest soulmass I've ever seen; the ladder itself simply leads up higher. When I reach the top, there's a glowing flower to my right, and to my left is a stone bridge going back across the river into a forested area; I take the bridge first, curious. In the distance, I see a large, black feline of some sort prowling around; once I get close enough to make it out, it notices me, and starts stalking towards me. It's oddly wide and flat, and a moment later, I find out why, as it rolls itself up into a wheel and mows me down, more than half-killing me. I back away through some trees, and it turns and runs; I do the same, deciding to check where the glowing flower might be leading me instead, following a slippery slope up and away from the cliff. Soon, I find myself in an expanse of forest - I can't even see the rocky edges of the area through the trees. Preemptively, I raise my shield, and a moment later, a plant creature swings a vine at me from my left. In response, I turn and fight it, and it seems to be as resistant to my strengthened sword as the plant creatures on the way to the Moonlight Butterfly were to my pre-strengthened sword.

Now I'm curious. One plant creature at a time finds me, and I cut them down without much trouble; the third carries a purple moss clump that I'm glad to take, in case I ever need to return to Blighttown for some reason. I start exploring, following the left edge, keeping an eye out for movement; a vast open ledge, clear of trees, gives me full view of a huge, distant castle, presumably the same one where I fought the Moonlight Butterfly. For a few moments, I admire the view, and then I continue exploring. Along the way, I hear a plant creature pop out of the ground, so it doesn't surprise me; further, four plant creatures are wandering about on another treeless ledge. Not afraid, I walk up to them, but after some fighting, they overwhelm me.

Annoyed, I get up at the bonfire. First, I use my Twin Humanities, like I should have before - one to revive myself, and one to kindle the flame. Then I run back to recover what I lost, determined this time to use my pyromancy. One of the crystal golems drops a chunk of blue titanite on the way; one of the intermittent plant creatures drops another clump of purple moss. Nothing else of note happens, and I jog back to where I was, my flame ready; I recover, and take down one of the plants with my fire. Moments later, the rest kill me.

Now I have no means of un-Hollowing myself, except maybe for the Humanity that female near-Hollow merchant was selling. To get that, I'll need to conquer this plant infestation, and to do that, it looks like I'll need to use my sword and pyromancy flame together, along with a bit more strategy. The trip gets me another purple moss clump, and then I'm trying again. This time, I take them all down.

With this done, I have plenty of souls. At the edge of the cliff I just fought for the right to investigate, also I find a corpse wearing a set of Eastern-style armor…the torso of which is superior to my current body armor in almost every way, except for a slightly lower magic resistance, and a slightly greater weight. When I try it on, I find I can still move freely, thanks to Havel's Ring - and that it doesn't look too bad, either, with a red-and-gold-colored base and a metal lion visage covering my left shoulder. I'm not sure if it makes the fight with the plants worth it, but it's certainly a nice treasure.

I then go into the woods to explore further. As I splash through a pond, a few plant creatures attack me; I kill one of them, but then one of them manages to grab me and chew on me, and even with my blue tearstone ring, I die. Still, I have the armor, and there's no need to go to that ledge and fight the other plant creatures again. Six purple moss clumps and two bloodred moss clumps are my reward for bothering to go back for the power I lost.

I'm still not deterred; I want to keep exploring. After all, if I'm to succeed Great Lord Gwyn, how can I be intimidated by a mere forest? At one point, someone starts shooting arrows at me, though, and now I begin to wonder if I'm entering the same part of the forest that was through the sealed door. It takes a wide berth to run around the archer's location, but I keep going forward all the same. Then, I round a corner, and find the stairs that lead up through the sealed door I unlocked; I've come full circle.

In that case, I decide it's time to rest. I'll go buy the Humanity sprite from the near-Hollow, and then…maybe it's time to take on the drake. I also try to reinforce my new body armor when I pass Andre, but it turns out that this armor requires twinkling titanite. Somewhat irritated, I leave him without buying anything.

"I'll be seeing you, then," he says. "Be careful out there."

Without a word, I nod, then continue on up. I take the lift from the parish down to Firelink Shrine, so I can feed Frampt some of the junk I've found along my way; the Hollows I pass get cut down painfully easily. When I reach Frampt, I don't mind appearing Hollowed before him - I have food.

"I am pleased to see you well," he says, this time legitimately, even though I'm Hollowed. "Is it something urgent?"

"No, I just have some things to feed you," I tell him, and I give him my junk and bid farewell.

"Farewell. Chosen Undead," he says formally. "I remain here, and await thee."

Acknowledging this with a nod, I go. As planned, I buy the Humanity sprite, but since I'm going to fight the drake, I don't use it. Then I rest at the bonfire underneath the red beast's domain, and climb up the ladder and walk up the stairs; I have to lure it into burning up all the Hollows on the bridge before I'll be able to actually fight it. This is not difficult, and after a few moments, the way is clear; I'm ready. I also make a mental note to be sure and hit its tail when I can - surely, it's large and draconic enough for a dragon weapon to be made from its remains.

To lure it onto the bridge, I stand up in the alcove where the stairs go down, out of the reach of its fire, and wait. Eventually, it comes down from its perch and lands on the bridge. Seeing it walk along beside me is both intimidating and exciting. It then flies up, and though I try to take cover down the stairs, its attack catches me, and a sea of fire burns me alive.

That did not go well. But I climb right back up to try again - it's right there, any amount of tries is not unreasonable. After all, that's why I didn't use my Humanity sprite. This time, I dodge the first attack, and the second, but when I come up and hide behind a wall where I think I'm safe, again, the fire somehow catches me and pulls me out into its full force instead of pushing me away, and I'm quickly burned up.

Third try, I think I know what I need to do. I'm able to avoid its fire attacks properly now, and I even get one good swing on it. But I really, _really_ want that tail! I try to hide, wait for a good shot on it; I somehow end up taking a fire blast and not dying, and I think I'm in a good spot, but its tail can be made into weapon for a reason - it swipes me with it, and I die.

At this point, I've gathered enough souls (which I've been easily recovering after every death) to put into strengthening my body, so I recover it all, then go back and do that before climbing up again. The bunch of souls from each time I go up is a nice bonus - if I die enough times, I can strengthen myself further! This time, quick successions of waves of fire catch me, and I can't escape down the stairs before I'm burned up.

Fifth time; death by repeated walls of fire. Sixth time, same. Seventh time, a column of fire when so close to getting a shot at the tail. Eighth time, I decide to go down to the underside of the bridge and see if I can't shoot its tail off with a bow and arrows. I get down and find a good vantage point, and I can certainly hit its tail - it can feel it, it roars and jumps onto the bridge every time an arrow finds its mark - but after a while, I start to wonder if I can actually sever its tail like this. Before getting any results, I exhaust my supply of feathered arrows, so I switch to a crossbow, but this proves impossible to aim. Frustrated, I climb down to buy as many arrows as I can from the trinket stand, _without_ resting at the bonfire and allowing the drake to heal.

"Oh, there you are," the merchant says. "Where have you been hiding? I'd guessed you'd hopped the twig for certain. Bah, shows what I know!" He giggles.

I can buy a full 79 large arrows from him by spending every last one of my souls (he has no feathered arrows); if this isn't enough, I'll give up. He thanks me, and I go back up. One arrow - _one_ arrow! - and the tail falls into my hands, meaning I wasted 3900 souls. Oh well, I have the Drake Sword now. I'm actually strong enough to wield it, and even raw, it's even stronger than my +8 broadsword! It's also twice as heavy, but I decide to switch it out - if nothing else, I'll take a lot of pleasure in killing this drake with its own tail. It's a primal-looking blade, like the Dragon King Greataxe, not as smooth and shiny as my broadsword; but in a way, that kind of makes it look better. A wavy, rune-covered design runs along its slightly curved length - it's more of a saber than anything, as only the outside edge is sharp, and the point is like a needle.

Now, it's time to try for real - this is still try number eight. But I've lost my rhythm, and I'm soon burned up before I can even make a single strike. When I climb back up, I swing the sword around a bit to get a feel for it, then begin the process again; Take nine. Somehow, I fail to bait the drake properly, so I have to kill a couple of the Hollows myself, but the sword cuts them down so easily as to make all this trouble worth it.

At last, I find a pattern, and start getting in a rhythm of baiting it to go to the far side of the bridge - the side ending in the two towers - and walk along it until I slash at its leg. Usually, it then jumps up and unleashes a column of fire, but by then, I'm far enough down the stairs that it can't hurt me. This goes on for a little while, but eventually, it baits me, and I end up stunlocked in a repeated wave of flames.

Tenth try, and now I feel like I have a chance; stunlocked in fire again. Eleventh try, and on the way up I finally notice the magic in the blade, giving me increased defense against fire, ironically. Each time I sink the blade into its leg, it makes a very satisfying sound, and I know I'm doing a lot of damage. At one point, I try using the sword with both hands; when I go to attack, I raise it high up and bring it down, and a shockwave of power radiates from it - I wasn't expecting this, and decide to go back to one-handing it for this fight at least. I find a rhythm - wait for it, step, step, step, step, step, _strike!_ , run down the stairs - but the drake eventually breaks it and burns me up.

Twelfth try, and the fight goes on for a _long_ time - I get close, but a couple of dumb mistakes and one graze of fire too many gets me killed. Thirteenth try, and I mess up somehow, causing it to give up; this messes me up in turn, as I try to stay too close to the surface now and quickly pay the price. Fourteenth try, and it gives up at one point, but I take the opportunity to run across the bridge to the other side and loot the corpse of one of the Hollows I lured it into killing - more food for Frampt; shortly thereafter, I get stunlocked and burn up again. The direction the fire pushes me when it hits me never makes any sense…it's as if the force itself is sapient, and pushing me _up_ the stairs and _out_ onto the bridge no matter what direction it should be hitting me from.

Fifteenth try, and it's a very long game. It's better to be too cautious than not cautious enough, and I make sure to stay out of harm's way as much as I can. At one point, it gets so angry that I feel several Hollows' souls flow into me from somewhere, I don't even know where - it must have killed them somehow. Looking at the creature from down the stairs, seeing it from all angles while I wait for my chance, I come to appreciate just how spiky the thing is - its back is a field of nothing but spikes, spikes are on its head and tail, and it even has a line of spikes down its underside, as well as spikes that wrap around its chest to look like ribs; the only things that lack spikes are its legs and its wings. There's nothing beautiful or elegant about it, unlike the sword that comes from its tail. I persevere, the protection against fire from the sword a tremendous asset…and then, at last, it falls.

The bridge is now clear. Along it, I find a couple of old corpses that are still lootable - some are red from being burned up, but not all; one carries a claymore, the other a medium-sized soulmass. Across the bridge is a shrine of some sort, a statue of a mother with her baby not too unlike the one down near Frampt's place, only more joyous; and in front of this is a bonfire. I light it, and use it and the Humanity sprite to revive my body in celebration.

To the left of the entrance to this place is a lever, next to a large wooden gate; I pull the lever and open it, and sure enough, I'm back along the path to the church. There are a couple of doors out the other side of the building, though, and here I find three crestfallen Hollows - which I put out of their misery, if only temporarily - and the shattered remains of a golden statue. There's nothing else.

Everything sinks in, and I take a moment to look at the sword in my hand. _This_ is power, and this is the sword with which I shall succeed Lord Gwyn. I wonder if it can even be reinforced, and I take it to Andre. Getting through the Hollows on the way is a slaughter; one of them even drops another shard of titanite for me. It turns out, this blade _can_ be reinforced, but not with titanite - it takes dragon scales, as well as a ton of souls. But it's worth it, and I reinforce it twice over. I also reinforce my gauntlets - they leave my elbows bare, so it's better that they're stronger; I try to talk to him, but he has nothing new to say to me.

Now, I think, it's time I take on the Catacombs. I'll have to use my Divine Morning Star, it's true, but for many reasons, I think I'm ready. On the way, I stop to talk to Petrus, to let him know I'm finally going down.

"Oh, you, have you seen M'lady?" he asks when he sees me. "Oh blast, where might she be, and would she be safe…"

Something about him seems off. A whispering voice urges me to climb up to see Oswald of Carim; I have no real reason not to, so I do. Once I'm up top, I disarm and remove my helmet to be polite, then approach and greet him.

"Greetings, and welcome back," he says. "I am pleased to see thee preserving thine humanity."

"Thank you," I reply.

"Hmm…" he says slowly. Then he asks, "Hast thou acquaintance with Petrus of Thorolund?" I blink in surprise. "I wager you two hath likely found much in common. For is he not too drenched in sin…" He laughs.

"I need to go," I say.

"Thou art welcome anytime," he says pleasantly. "It is only human to commit a sin…" He laughs again, but I'm already out the door.

I run back down to Firelink Shrine, and I go to confront the man himself about this, but he only offers to teach me Miracles; I pass him up. _Something_ is wrong, but I'm not sure what to do.

Stymied, I go to see Frampt and feed him the junk I've picked up, then walk past him into the graveyard. Skeletons are positively slaughtered by the drake sword - and one of them drops a red and white roundshield - but I know that once I get down below, I'll need to start using my Divine Morning Star. That's only four easy kills before I have to swap out…but I'm ready.

Down in the dark, three faintly glowing heads float above a bottomless pit. A skeleton comes for me, but one of the heads hovers close, shakes, then explodes with red light and a scream; the blast knocks me away, and the skeleton down, so a single blow from my Divine Morning Star ends it; it drops a scimitar. A second head explodes, but does no harm. The third doesn't notice me until I climb down the steps that run alongside the pit, but I notice when it's ready to explode and get out of the way.

Through a passageway, I nearly fall off a ledge, and a skeleton sneaks up on my left. Two blows from my Divine Morning Star kill it, and I'm starting to wonder how difficult this journey will really be. Down a ladder, I find two more skeletons; these go down in three hits each, and are positively smashed by the weapon in the process so they can't get a single hit on me. This is seeming much too easy. Through another passageway, old, lifeless skeletons line the walls; simply touching them causes them to crumble. A few more steps down from there, two more skeletons assemble and are destroyed. Past them is a heavy metal door, but through a hole in the left-hand side of the wall is a cavern, at the bottom of which is a strange stone lever, a bonfire, and some sort of creature that casts a fire spell at me the moment it sees me. I climb up a little ways to swap out for my drake sword, then come back and cut it down before it can do anything. Safe, I light the bonfire and sit down.

It's been so long since I last just sat with her. She's immensely proud of me for taking down the drake so much sooner than she did. I ask her about Petrus, and she shows me a series of visions, memories from her journey: She actually took on the Catacombs before ringing the second Bell of Awakening - before Knight Lautrec killed the Fire Keeper (yes, it _was_ him, she confirms); "M'lady" left with her escorts, and Petrus was the only one there when she got back after one journey partway down, but she was able to ask Lautrec about them, and he told her how Petrus abandoned the woman in the depths. She then confronted Petrus about it, and he dropped the facade and said he knew exactly where she was, helpless in a pit deep in the Tomb of the Giants, and made suggestions about taking advantage of her and laughed. So she killed him, out of an odd sense of justice; immediately afterwards, she worked long and hard to earn enough souls to be given absolution by Oswald, but she believed she did the right thing. I guess I myself will have to see.

For now, I have done so much; I am exhausted. Though there are swarms of beetles crawling along the walls and floor, I have her here with me, and that's all I need to fall asleep.


	20. Chapter 19

When I awaken, I step over a stream of beetles and push in the lever - it's an odd mechanism, like a stone pillar with a handle poking out that needs to be pushed back in to deactivate it. Some sort of contraption comes to life, and a panel behind the thing I just pushed the lever into lowers. I'm guessing this means the door is open, so I swap my weapons back and go up, killing the two skeletons again.

Through the now-open door is a dirt path open to the sky, lined with rough statues that look vaguely like women. Up a hill, I find a pretty waterfall flowing down into a bottomless pit; I crest the hill and reach the edge, and I see some stone bridges and - another fire caster, who strikes me with a fireball. This one's far away, across the pit, so I'll have to use Great Soul Arrows to kill it. I do this easily, and then I turn my attention to the path along the wall to my left that will allow me to traverse the area, and the skeletons on said path, one of which is already up.

That first one goes down with ease. Past it are two more, one with a large sword, one with a smaller sword and a shield. The one with the shield ends up rolling on the ground around me, and at one or two points, I'm getting hit from both sides; but then, somehow, the rolling skeleton ends up rolling off the edge of the cliff, and I'm left alone with the one skeleton, which I easily smash. Cut into the wall are some rectangular openings with skulls inside them - I am truly entering a set of catacombs, even if I'm outside right now. An oddly set stone bridge spans the ledge I'm on and the one across; underneath it, I can see a doorway blocked with white light. I walk across it, not entirely sure I trust it, but nothing happens; then, I'm inside the Catacombs.

From a short distance above me, a skeleton shoots arrows; past a half-wall that should (and, upon trying it, does) block the arrows, other skeletons are ahead of me, I can see the white lights in their eye sockets shining in the dark among the few candles in the shelves that now all but make up the walls. I proceed with some caution, but not too much, as my weapon seems more than equipped to destroy everything here. One manages to get a hit on me after I smash another, knocking my shield out of the way with its big sword and then slashing me, but then it jumps to the right and I hit it, and it falls off the edge of the ledge. A third skeleton sneaks up behind me, but I quickly take it down too. Rivers of beetles slowly proceed underfoot, paying no mind to what's going on above them.

There are a lot of pots here, some whole, some half-broken, some shattered and littering the ground. A little ways ahead, a fight with one skeleton that jumps down a short ledge to get to me includes me knocking it into a pot and smashing the pot to bits. I don't think there's anything in these pots, though, so I ignore them. Up exactly five steps is another area, with a path leading forward and a path leading right; I go right first, and find a room with two skeletons, one already up and waiting for me, the other just assembling as I enter. Once they're done, I look around, and find an actual corpse in one of the shelves, not just bones; it's carrying a lucerne, a sort of beaked halberd that I will not use. More food for Frampt.

Back on the path, I go up a rise, and I find another skeleton; I start smashing it, but two-thirds of the way through, another skeleton comes rolling along with a bigger sword, and with them both ganged up on me, they get a few good slashes in. Of course, I eventually demolish the one, and then focus on the other and easily kill it. The path forks, and I go left; I soon come upon the skeleton that was shooting arrows at me earlier, and I double back to check the other way; there's nothing here but a single skeleton and a dead end, so I dispatch of it, then turn back around to confront the skeleton with the bow. Another skeleton rises to assist it when I draw close, but the bow-wielding skeleton only takes two hits to be destroyed, and the other gives me no trouble on its own. The skeleton that was using a bow also gives me a humanity. With the skeletons gone, I find the ledge from which the bow-wielding skeleton was shooting, then turn back. On a shelf, I find a corpse with a medium soulmass, and across the path from that is an opening that leads back outside.

Out here, a bridge like the last one is turned so that a line of spikes neatly jut up from its center; to my right, a ledge leads around a bottomless pit over which a couple of floating heads are drifting. I get near enough to trigger them, then get out of the way once they explode, to no harm. A little ways up the ledge, a statue stands out from the wall, and something pulls me to walk directly at it rather than past it; when I reach it, three long spikes shoot out from its center across the entire path - I'm lucky (or, should I say, grateful) that I wasn't impaled. In the distance, a skeleton awakens, and I wait for it to come to me; it gets a few hits in, but like all the others, I smash it. The statue's spikes are harmless once they're all the way out, and they retract slowly before shooting out again, so it's not hard to get past them; once I'm through, a skeleton reassembles, and a floating head appears from behind the rock wall; I hurry back as it starts to go off, and though I get slightly stabbed by one of the statue spikes, the explosion knocks the skeleton off the ledge, and that's that. Beyond that is another statue that shoots out spikes, and a skeleton that assembles right next to it; I smash the skeleton - which doesn't seem all that interested in me, really, wandering around with its back to me - and continue on.

Not all the statues shoot out spikes - I pass two safe ones before the next booby trap. Another skeleton meets me and gets knocked down; this is getting tiresome. It's the last one along here, though; the next thing I find is a lever, and at the far end, behind a couple of pots, is a corpse with a large-ish soulmass. I get the soulmass first, then push the lever in; this turns the bridge ninety degrees so that a flat side is facing up. It's at this moment that I notice I'm out of Estus; I consider the problem for a moment, then shrug it off and continue.

Two skeletons flank the opening on the other side of the bridge. To lure one away, I shoot it with a Great Soul Arrow, and it rolls over to me so I can smash it; I repeat this with the other skeleton. Across the bridge and inside is another fire-caster - it gets a full hit on me with a fireball when I hit it with my Divine Morning Star, and considering how much it hurt, I duck around a corner to swap my weapons, since the drake sword boosts fire resistance. Then, when come back out and slash at the black-cloaked monster, I slip and fall off the edge. By some miracle, I land on some stairs that go down around the edge of the pit, but now I'm among a couple of skeletons, and the fire-caster can still hit me. I'm running low on health, and I'm out of Estus; I run up the stairs, dodging the skeletons, take one last slash at the fire-caster so it's dead and gone - they don't recover when a bonfire activates - then dash back the way I came to the bonfire. Once I'm there, I use the humanity that one skeleton gave me to kindle the flame, and then I go back again.

Destroying skeletons is getting boring. On the way back, though, I'm almost to where I was when a floating head explodes and knocks me off the bridge - that's more of a threat than any skeleton, really. I'm Hollowed now, but there's nothing to be done about that; I smash my way through again, this time being more careful about the floating head.

Now I'm back where I was, without worry about a fire-caster, and this time, I notice an opening in the wall to my right. Forward seems like progress, so I take this route, and find myself in what appears to be a completely empty room. Something tells me to check the ground; most of the ground is sunken, with a sort of stone slab jutting into the middle, and I see a spot that doesn't look quite trustworthy. It's safe, she tells me, so I step on it and fall onto some pots.

Ahead, the first thing I see is the glow of a crystal lizard, and I try to run for it, but the booby-trapped statues are thick here, and two of them impale me while I try to run; the lizard gets away before I can reach it. The passage I've fallen into is narrow and, again, full of booby-trapped statues; I wonder what the point is, apart from that one lizard. I make my way through; a normal statue marks the end, and there, I find a ladder cut into the wall to my right. At the top is another room like the one I first fell through, and the false floor is much more visible this time; I drop through this, and find myself behind a waterfall, a place I soon recognize as the ledge where I found the lever to turn the bridge. That means there are some skeletons and a couple of floating heads between me and where I was, but I take on the task without concern. One of the skeletons is so kind as to give me a humanity; I save it for the next bonfire, because I don't want to go back. Also on the way, one of the floating heads actually kills a skeleton, and it doesn't reanimate; I wonder why. Then, at last, it's time to walk down the spiral stairs ahead.

The first alcove to my right contains a skeleton; the second contains a corpse with a medium soulmass under a booby-trapped statue. At the base of the stairs are two skeletons, a booby-trapped statue next to a closed stone door, and a passage to my right and more stairs to my left. As I stand in the middle after destroying the skeletons, trying to decide which way to go, I feel a huge rush of souls flow into me; I wonder what fell off a cliff and died. After another moment's deliberation, I go into the right-hand passageway; inside is a room with three skeletons, two booby-trapped statues, and a corpse bearing a large soulmass. Down the stairs are two more skeletons, one of which tries to jump across the pit to get to me and falls to its death; this is starting to remind me of the upper portions of Blighttown. A little past this is a room with a lever that I push in; I assume it opens the door I saw earlier. The stairs crumble into nothingness past here, so I go back; sure enough, the door is open, and I pass through it. A few stairs _seem_ to lead outside into an area with ledges on cliff faces again, but they actually end well before a bottomless pit; the correct path is to the left, which is a narrow passage that leads to the outside the stairs pretended to lead to.

Out here, the rocks and waterfalls are nice, but to my right is a line of spikes again - I need a lever to turn the bridge. This is all starting to get repetitive. I follow a ledge along my left, this one blocked on the other side by boulders, and a dent in the wall ahead seems odd. All the statues along the way are harmless, but the one positioned right next to the end of the wall is booby-trapped. That's more than enough to make me suspicious, and I swing my Divine Morning Star against the wall. Sure enough, it vanishes, revealing a passage to some stairs that lead up to a bonfire. Here, I use the humanity that skeleton gave me to revive myself. I am making progress.


	21. Chapter 20

Before I stand up to go again, I strengthen myself with the souls I've gathered and attune the Cast Light spell I got from Dusk, replacing my Fire Orb spell - I will need to get myself more power so I can have more spells on-hand, the souls I just used don't cut it. Back down the stairs and outside, I find a ladder embedded into a sheer stone wall to my left; up it, I find another lever, and pushing it in rotates the bridge. Again, I have to wonder, what's the point of having several of these? If the intention was to keep people out, why have the same thing twice? Anyone who's gotten this far would have to know the trick. With a sigh, I shrug it off, cross the bridge, and traverse the white light; on the way, down in a pit below, I see some floating heads.

On the other side of the white light, which dissipates behind me, is a dark passage with stairs leading down along a wall to a solid floor. There are three skeletons here, one of which manages to sneak up behind me and slash at me. After I smash one, the other two end up at the side of the steps with me halfway up; I jump down and smash them both with gravity aiding me, and both are annihilated. There's a simple doorway out of here, but to the right is a very weak-looking wall with bricks that aren't even lined up; I smash through it, and find myself being shot at with arrows. I have to climb the stairs to escape them, and a few moments later, I find myself being blasted by fire, so I have to run all the way back outside to take a moment and think. One of the fire-casters is working with skeletons to guard something. But what?

Regrouping, I run back in. The first skeleton is directly to my right, on a ledge just a little below the one I'm on formed by some crumbled stone - there isn't much floor to stand on past the wall I smashed. I hit it once, and it falls to the floor a ways below; I follow. There are two other skeletons down here, these with swords, but none are a bother - the bow-wielding skeleton even drops its short bow; more food for Frampt. Once they're all gone, I look around, and find some stairs; I climb these, wary of the statues here along the way that turn out not to be booby-trapped, and am soon met with a giant skeleton. I've never had to kill one of these with my Divine Morning Star before, and one hit on it costs me greatly. I run back, spot a ladder embedded in a wall, and climb up. The other skeleton with a bow is up here, and I stop to smash it; this ledge is higher than the one I came in on, and I try to jump down to the entrance, but I end up on the ledge below it where the first skeleton was. The giant skeleton is still raging below me, and this gives me an idea: I jump down weapon-first, using gravity to aid my swing, climb the ladder again, jump down on it again, and just like that, it's dead.

There is another ladder here, which I climb, expecting to find the fire-caster, but there's nothing up here except a way back out; I wonder where the fire-caster went? In any case, I climb back down to see what the giant skeleton was guarding. At the end of the passage is a stone coffin at the foot of another statue like the one the drake was guarding, with the lid slightly ajar; inside is a corpse wearing the Darkmoon Seance Ring, which can allow me to have more spells on hand without needing to strengthen myself with more souls. I can't remove Havel's Ring…but the blue tearstone ring, I guess, can go. I change rings, and can now have three spells on-hand. Of course, I'll have to go back to the bonfire just to make use of this.

Now, I head back. As I go, though, I notice I'm barely able to move, and after a minute, I realize I accidentally swapped out the wrong ring. I fix the problem and return to where I was; then, I deliberate: go forward, or back to the bonfire? Forward, I decide, at least for now, and I find myself on the ledge around the pit with the floating heads that I saw earlier. Four skeletons are creeping towards me from around a corner; I lure three floating heads into exploding and killing them, but here, I finally see the phenomenon of skeletons reassembling even after being destroyed - only my Divine Morning Star can kill them. Why these ones? I wonder if it has something to do with the fire-caster from earlier…Ultimately, I smash through three; one falls off a ledge, and I don't get the souls from it, so I wonder if it's now in a cycle of constantly reassembling and dying. Curious, I look over the edge, and to my surprise, I see a couple of glowing spots - there must actually be something down there.

For now, though, I turn back to see if I can find the fire-caster. I stand in the spot where it struck me before and wait, looking around, but nothing happens. Maybe I'll find it after I go back and use the bonfire; for now, I set it aside and proceed. There's another floating head on the far end of the pit, but it doesn't hit me when it explodes, though it does smash some pots. There are a lot of statues here, but the space is relatively open, and if any of them are booby-trapped, I don't trigger it. Around the other side of the pit, I pass by the broken half of what was once a bridge from the doorway I came out through, then go through a small doorway into a dimly-lit crypt. Stone coffins jut out from the walls on both sides; one has its own alcove to my left, but there's nothing else there. Along the way, I find a hole in the wall in an alcove to my right, but I go past this, and in the distance, I barely make out the figure of another headless demon.

Here, I stop. Fight, or flee? Fight, I decide, switching out my drake sword - this, surely, won't come back to life if not killed with a divine weapon. Just before I reach it, I take out my catalyst and cast a Great Soul Arrow at it, just to see what happens; the magic drops to the floor without a target, though, as I can't aim at the monster yet - possibly because it hasn't moved. Unbothered, I discard the plan and simply run in with my drake sword. It awakens, and the fight begins.

Ride the left back, I remind myself. This is more difficult in this relatively enclosed passage, though, and it jumps like the other one did when it can't reach me. I manage to fight pretty well, but I went in with only one swallow of Estus left in my Flask, and when I use it, I'm left vulnerable; eventually, the monster manages to wear me down.

Now I'm back at the bonfire, Hollowed once more. I take the time to attune my Fire Orb again, making use of the Darkmoon Seance Ring, and then head back out; I won't have to look through that wall again, so I'll almost certainly have more Estus than last time by the time I make it back to the headless demon.

Just outside the bonfire room, I get hit by the booby-trapped statue, but it does almost nothing to me. As I cross the bridge this time, I notice some ledges to my right, under where the stairs to nowhere were - I'll have to go back and see where that goes later. As I observe this, a skeleton's souls flow into me; I don't care from where. Near the end of the bridge, I see a skeleton fall down a cliff above me to my left and die, and I wonder where it came from…it doesn't matter. The entirety of the trip is short and mostly uneventful, though this time, three of the skeletons on the ledge fall and don't die. I only need one swig of Estus to make it back to the crypt with a few scratches, and I take a second just so I'm ready before swapping out my drake sword and running towards the headless demon. It's a _very_ close match, but my downfall comes in not being able to avoid its plunging attack when it gets tired of not being able to hit me.

Undeterred, I go back and try again; the trip is even easier this time. When I get there, though, it almost seems as though the creature's attacks are stronger than before, and one diving strike kills me from near-perfect health. I'd use my gold pine resin, but the substance doesn't work with dragon weapons.

Every time I cross the bridge, the souls of a skeleton flow into me - it did last time, and it does this time. I'm starting to wonder about it, but accept that it's a mystery that will probably never be solved. Back on the ledge with the floating heads, though, the skeletons lure me into a position where a floating head can knock me off the edge, and it does. Annoyed, I head back out again.

This time, the trip is cake - I run out to get all the floating heads to explode sooner rather than later, then retreat to fight the skeletons. Two always end up falling off the edge of the cliff for some reason, but I'm not complaining. The moment I get to the demon, though, it kills me - I have my shield up, and I try to aim for it, but it's as if nothing at all is protecting me, like fighting a ghost. I'm getting angry now.

On the way through this run, when I get the rush of souls, I also get a humanity. I don't waste it, though - I won't use it at least until I've killed the headless demon. When I get back to it, the greenish glow from my death spot is illuminating the monster; it's a rather interesting effect. This time, at last, it's a slaughter on _my_ part - I'm at full health with two swallows of Estus left when the monster falls, leaving me with a chunk of strange titanite like the last one did. Triumphantly, I head to the back of the crypt to see what it was guarding; all it was was a corpse carrying three cursed eyes like the one I got from the black frog thing in the sewers, which I won't ever use. Still, the victory alone is gratifying.

Through the hole in the wall I noticed earlier, I find myself on a high ledge in a room with a corpse bearing a medium soulmass in the corner to my right. Something tells me to wait for the two skeletons that are climbing up the ladder from the floor below; I defeat them without any difficulty at all. At the bottom of the ladder is a big stone coffin, and questionable bits of floor at either end; I avoid these and go back up to investigate the ledges I noticed earlier. On the way, I look through my supplies and find I've gathered a lot of medium to medium-large soulmasses that I haven't absorbed; I absorb them as soon as I find them, and am left with just barely too few souls to strengthen myself. When I'm almost across the bridge, another skeleton jumps to its death in the same place as the one I saw last time (this time on my right), but another drops down onto the path in front of me; I kill it easily, but still, I have to wonder where they're from. Before I go investigating, I restore my body at the bonfire.

I'm heading back down the stairs from the bonfire when a faint voice tells me to equip the Fall Control spell I got from Griggs. She couldn't have told me sooner? Bemused, I go back, swap out the Fire Orb for Fall Control, then head back out. Right away, I backtrack to the inside of the previous area to kill the skeletons by the exit so they don't bother me; only then do I walk down the stairs to nowhere, take a moment, and drop down to my right. After I land on the ledge I saw, another ledge presents itself, this one in front of a cave, and I jump down to it. Here, I find a corpse carrying a great scythe, and a room with a false floor portion that I'm not sure I trust. I decide not to take it, and drop down the ledge that was in front of me when I jumped here. This puts me back in the room with the lever I used to open the stone door.

Now I'm confused; why did I need the Fall Control spell? And that's when she finally tells me that I can drop down from the crumbled edge of the outside staircase safely. Outside the door, a skeleton attacks, and I knock it to its death - to the place I'm apparently going to be jumping myself. Trusting her, I cast the spell and make the jump, another skeleton falling to its death beside me; sure enough, a couple of ledges allow me to relatively safely drop to a hole in a ceiling, which leads to a crypt passage. One of the ledges has a corpse carrying a shard of green titanite, and the bones of the skeletons I saw fall/knocked down here are littered around the hole. Before the final drop, I take a moment, and the spell wears off, so I have to cast it again first. As I use my catalyst, though, I hear the pounding of metal, and while it sounds for a moment like swords on stone, I realize after a moment that it's actually the sound of smithing.

Expectant of what I'll find, I drop down. At the far end of the passageway, to my left, I can barely make out the figure of a wide-set skeleton with weird little metal squares hanging in strands from its upper lip like a beard. He thunders towards me, then lifts the pickaxe he's carrying and smashes it into the wall to his left (my right). Then he looks at me.

"Be gone with you!" he says in a strange, raspy voice. "You'll spoil my focus!"

Then he goes back, and resumes his smithing.

I walk down the passage, past the hole in the wall, to see this strange creature - I could use some smithing, I've been using my weapons often and taking a lot of hits. In an attempt to seem less rude - this creature is clearly cantankerous, whatever he may be - I put away my weapons and remove my helmet. The skeleton's back is to me.

"What's that then? Need some smithing?" he asks without turning or even pausing in his smithing. "Then produce me some wares."

I have plenty of souls - 12,200, just about 200 shy of enough to strengthen myself - and I look at what he has and what he can do. He can ascend my +8 broadsword into a fire broadsword, but though I'm tempted, I decline; he can, of course, reinforce my Divine Morning Star to +2 with the green titanite shard I found on my way down here, and I have him do so. Besides that, I have him repair all the damaged equipment I have with me, which costs me nearly 3,000 souls - my armor in particular has been taking quite a beating. He also sells Homeward Bones, titanite shards, repairboxes and smithboxes for weapons and armor, and basic arrows and bolts.

"Who are you?" I ask him. "I am Deimos of-"

"Hmph! I'm not here to chit-chat," he spits.

"Very well then," I say; "thank you for the repairs."

"If that'll be all, then be gone with you," he rasps. "You'll spoil my focus."

I leave him be, re-equip myself, and investigate the hole he made in the wall; it leads to a grassy path into pitch-blackness. After a moment, she tells me to run; I take a swig from my Estus Flask, then do so, my shield raised. Mounds of bones crunch under my boots, and after a little ways, skeletons in spiked wheels start rolling towards me. She guides my feet, and the ones ahead miss me; the ones that have been chasing behind catch up to me, but I avoid them for the most part, and they roll past me. Two roll past me at once, blocking my way; just beyond them is a wall of white light, and I know that if I can pass it, I'll be safe, but they prevent me from reaching it, and a couple more come up behind me and kill me.

Now I'm back at the bonfire, Hollowed once more. I left about 9,000 souls back there, but I feel oddly rash, and so I head back to the place with bits of false floor to see what's beneath; I get to the place by way of the false floor near the corpse that was holding a great scythe, which turns out to lead to the space right in front of the crypt where the headless demon was lurking - a significant shortcut. Something urges me to swap out my drake sword when I reach the place with false floor bits; I obey it, drop down through one of the false floor sections, and find myself facing off against a black knight.

The black knight swings its battle axe and nearly kills me with one blow as soon as I land; I manage to evade it after that and take a drink from my Estus Flask. It uses moves like both the mace-wielding black knight and the greatsword-wielding black knight, and I strike it whenever it uses the moves I've learned give me ample opportunity to attack. At one point, a floating head drifts through a hole in the wall and explodes; it only does a little damage to both of us. The drake sword, on the other hand, cuts the black knight down almost with ease, and it's soon dead, leaving me with a white chunk of titanite and the black knight's greataxe - a powerful weapon, but _far_ too heavy for me to lift just yet.

With the monster gone, I pillage a large-ish soulmass from a corpse hanging halfway off a cliff through the hole in the wall, then drop down to a lower ledge of about the same size. At the bottom, I can just make out the water and bones characteristic of the place where I recently died, and soon, the spike wheel skeletons are clanging against the bottom of the cliff. Trusting her to guide me again, I jump down and run, dodging left and right; I'm almost dead by the time I reach the wall of white light, but this time I make it, and I traverse it. It does not dissipate.

Only once I'm on the other side do I drink from my Estus Flask - as much as I need to heal every bit of damage I've taken, until I have one swallow left. Then, I walk a ways down the path, and soon come to a spot where a hole in a ceiling leads to a huge underground room. The drop is far, and to be safe, I cast Fall Control before I jump; I'm sure there's a powerful creature here, so it's all the more important not to be hurt at the start.

Down at the bottom is a room with a floor mostly covered by a thin layer of water; books are piled up against the walls around the dry outside edges that are slightly raised. Skeletons hang from the ceiling by their wrists everywhere, and at a stone table with another skeleton is a black-cloaked figure. At first, I can't make out anything about them; then, two thin arms lift high, bearing lanterns. Moments later, the creature turns around, and I can see it has three different masks for faces and six arms arranged in a wheel around its center, each carrying lanterns. The three masks look at each other, then back at me; the next thing I know, I'm fighting.

Barely do I take a step before the creature rises into the air and twirls, and two copies of itself appear. Then I reach it, and find that my drake sword can cut it down with laughable ease. The clones disappear after one hit, and there's no reason for me to be all that cautious as I swing my blade at everything near me. It manages to cast a huge fire spell at me once or twice, but only one of them hits me; the next time it's ready to try making more copies of itself, I cut it down. And then it's over.

The rush of souls I get is tremendous, _far_ disproportionate to how difficult the fight was, especially compared to the drake. I also get a Humanity sprite, a Homeward Bone, one of the creature's three masks - the Mask of the Child, which invigorates the wearer - and…the Rite of Kindling. I remember Petrus talking about this, about how clerics sought it; the burning magic flows into my body, and somehow, I know I can now kindle bonfires to twice the strength I could before, allowing me to fill my Estus Flask even further. This is incredibly useful, especially since I'll be going into Sen's Fortress, and I'm glad I came down here to get it.

A ladder leads out of the room, and I climb it out of curiosity. I'm met with a world of pitch-black, I can barely see anything at all - it's far darker than anywhere else I've ever been. Prism Stones glimmer along the ground with sparks of color, but I don't feel like following them, what with everything I have right now. Instead, I go back around to the stone pillar that marked the hole I came down through; beside and then over this, I find a passage out. The exit is marked by a corpse bearing a large-ish soulmass.

I look down. This looks a lot like the path I took to get down here - the place where I last died. There's no getting around the spike wheel skeletons. Sure, I could use the Homeward Bone, but I'm curious to see what the actual exit to this place is, since drops that can't be climbed back up marked the path no matter which way I might have taken. Boldly, I jump down and run, shield up; at first, I get turned around, but I quickly re-orient myself and start sprinting. Just a little ways outside the hole to the skeleton smith's forge, I die. No matter, I can get back there easily. I'd better…

Fortunately, I do. It takes a bit of maneuvering to get back to my death spot, but I manage. The spike wheel skeletons soon mow me down, though…I wish I had some easy means of fighting them - the way they move, the Divine Morning Star is too slow, and since they're still skeletons, I don't dare risk using my drake sword.

Again, I go down, recover, and die. The distorted time here is working against me now, putting my death spot much further from the hole in the wall than the place where I actually die. Yes, I'm starting to realize this was a mistake, and I should have used the Homeward Bone; if nothing else, I have the Rite of Kindling now, even if I lose about 26,000 souls for my mistake. A skeleton survives the drop to the forge this time, and gets a small hit on me before I kill it, costing me a drink of Estus - no way am I going out there without being at full health. But this caution does me little good; I die again. Once, I manage to catch a spike wheel skeleton with my shield, but it locks me in place until I can't hold my shield up anymore, then tears into me. I'm getting frustrated - if there weren't so many souls on the line, I'd give up.

This time, I almost make it, but four spike wheel skeletons catch up to me right outside the forge; I can only hope my death spot is a bit closer this time. By some miracle, it is - just close enough to avoid alerting about half the spike wheel skeletons in the area. I manage to run back into the forge, though I have to knock one skeleton down to do so; another makes it in with me, and at first I think that staying alive will be enough since my death spot will be away from any skeletons, but after it runs itself into a wall, I decide to actively smash it - it takes two hits, and gives a not-insignificant amount of souls when it falls. For a few seconds, I listen to the spiked wheels clinking uselessly against stone; then, I use the Homeward Bone.

Back at the bonfire, I decide not to rest, and instead to try to make my way back up and out, at least to the next bonfire. This turns out to be far from difficult - if the Firelink Shrine bonfire was still working, I might have actually waited until then. For now, this will have to do; I revive my body, then strengthen it with the plethora of souls I have. This gives me the ability to have another spell on-hand, and I choose Hidden Body instead of a pyromancy spell.

Through the flames, I tell her about how easy my fight with the creature in the depths was, and she laughs with me. She also chuckles at the difficulty I had getting out of there, but she's impressed that I managed to make it back to my death spot so many times. Then it's time for me to go.

I climb back up into daylight with no trouble. Once I feel the cool mountain air in my lungs, I swap my drake sword back out, glad to not have to use a slower, weaker weapon anymore. Slaughtering the skeletons outside with the blade is very cathartic. On the way, I feed Frampt my accumulated garbage, and then I head up to Sen's Fortress.


	22. Chapter 21

The quickest, lightest attack from my drake sword slaughters the Hollows along the path enough to give me the overkill bonus, right up to the point where the drake once roosted; I don't even have to aim to mow them down. Naturally, I take the bridge instead of the underside, since I can; even the Hollows up here fall before me easily. I don't even bother to rest at the bonfire in the room the drake was guarding, there's no need; I do, however, kill the crestfallen Hollows outside - again, because I can. I'm going to need some more humanity at some point…the Rite of Kindling isn't much use if I can't kindle flames anyway.

It's not until I get to the bonfire above Andre that I remember the demon at the Northern Undead Asylum - between the strength of this sword and the fire resistance it provides, I can probably kill that thing with ease now. I deliberate for a minute while I rest at the fire, then decide to go for it - she didn't kill it until long after she got this far, but I'm stronger than her. It's also only when I decide to head back that I remember the lift I didn't take to get up here. Oh well, more souls for me.

In an odd moment of absent-mindedness, I step off the lift far too soon, and die. On the plus side, that just means a few more souls for me, and since I have Havel's Ring, I probably won't even need to strip down to make the jump once I get to it; on the other hand, I'm now Hollowed again. It's likely that I'll die against that demon at least once, though, so it's no major setback.

Being less mindless, I don't fall to my death on the way down this time, but I do miss the jump to the bridge that will take me up to the nest - not because I'm too heavy, but because I waited too long to jump. Slaughtering the skeletons I wake on the way is fun, and I feed a bit of junk I gathered on the way up to Frampt before trying again. It's right about now that I _do_ notice the primordial snake's rancid breath, but I've still dealt with much worse.

When I pass Petrus on the way up, I pause, remembering what she told me about him…Eventually, I decide to just ignore him for now. This time, I make the jump, without even lightening my load a little bit - Havel's Ring was truly a godsend. Then I climb up to the nest, curl up, and the raven takes me back to the Northern Undead Asylum.

Once there, the first thing I do - after slaughtering the ragged Hollows who gave me trouble last time - is give the "warm" and "soft" crow the sack I took from the butcher; I'm met with no protest, so I leave it with her. I stop at the bonfire, strengthen myself with the souls I've gathered, attune Fire Orb with my new increased capacity, then go to face the demon; I have to take one drink of Estus to heal a scratch one of the Hollows inside gives me, and before I jump, I cast the Fall Control spell, so I can start off with full health.

My new sword does much more damage than my old one did last time, but still not much compared to the last monster I fought. I survive two blasts of fire, just barely; when I try to take a swig from my Estus Flask, it rises into the air slightly and smashes down on me. This will still be a difficult fight, but I head in to try again.

This time, it's much more even - it feels like the fight the one in the Catacombs should have been. I notice after a little while that if I stay behind the demon, it casts its fire blast in front of itself, which I can back away from and still have time to run in and get a hit or two on its fat, scaly butt, or at least its bony tail - I couldn't do this before because I couldn't move fast enough in effective armor. Once I figure this out and get it down, the odds turn in my favor. It still takes a long time to chip down its health; once or twice, I try using my sword with two hands, and while the magic blast from this does a lot of damage one time, more often than not, it turns into a glancing hit that doesn't have much effect. When I get down to the last bit of the monster's health, I charge in, thinking I've won; it flies up, then slams down on me, and somehow that's enough to kill me in one hit.

I've had victory snatched from my grip, but I know that, if I don't make the same mistake again, I can kill this thing; I go back in, confident. The Hollows both manage to scratch me once, but one drink of Estus is not a huge price to pay. I repeat the same tactics as before once I'm down there - I am a bit bolder, but only a bit. At one point, there's a while where the creature only does its slam move, as though it knows that's what beat me last time, but this always allows me to get one slash in. Not every attack it makes is avoidable - twice during the fight, I have to take a swig from my Estus Flask, using an opportunity I'd normally use to strike at it to do so. At one point, a fire blast hits me full-force, and when I fall to the ground, I'm certain I'm dead; but by some miracle, I manage to get to my feet again, dodge the next attack, and take a drink from my Estus Flask. Eventually, at last, the creature falls. My rewards are a Humanity sprite, a Homeward Bone, even more souls than I got from the monster in the Catacombs, and an entire _slab_ of titanite.

At last, I'm free to look around at this place, and I find that I've been fighting on top of a huge pile of bones. I'm not surprised, but also not bothered. An alcove I noticed that was blocked by white light during the battle is open now, and in it is a ladder that leads to a point halfway up; a hole in a barred window gives access to what I soon recognize as the very corridor I took when I first exited my cell. Waiting at the other end is a black knight, more or less identical to the other black knight I found in this place before; this time, it goes down easily - if not without a fight - and leaves me with a chunk of red titanite and its sword. I compare the blade against my drake sword; if I hadn't upgraded the drake sword, this would have been stronger, but it's also heavier, and really less attractive-looking. This brief fight _does_ cost me what's left of my Estus, but I feel confident that there's nothing dangerous left around here now.

It's only now that I remember giving the sack to the "warm" and "soft" crow. I think I died more than once since then - yes, I'm fairly certain I did - so I don't have much hope for whatever she had for me in return still being there. As I run down the passageway to find out, I discover that the door at the far end is open, and inside it is a corpse carrying a strange doll in a strange dress. I take it, certain it has some sort of value, and then head out to the nests. It's not until I try to find the exit that I discover that I'm turned around, and that this was _my_ cell, the one I was in when all this began; I wonder how this corpse found its way here, and where the one that was holding the key to my cell went.

When I climb out of the well and reach the bonfire, I run past it to check the nest. Upon getting there, I _do_ find something: a hammer from one of the demons that lived in this place. I don't know how the crow got this, and in my confusion I accidentally swing my sword and fall to my death. This is no great setback. After I rise again, I check the hammer, and find that, while it's heavy, it's actually much weaker than my drake sword. Oh well, at least it's more food for Frampt. I run back out, recover what I lost - glad I didn't use the Humanity sprite I got from the demon - and then return to Lordran.

At last, it's time to head to Sen's Fortress. I take the lift this time, after climbing down and feeding Frampt the hammer I got from the crow - which, actually, gives me fewer souls than I would have gotten from feeding him the sack. Oh well, at least the crow's happy. Sigh. Also, I ignore Petrus again.

When I reach the bonfire, I strengthen myself with the souls I've gathered and go have Andre repair everything I have on me with some of what I have left, but I don't revive myself - I can't kindle a flame unless I'm un-Hollowed, and wasting a Humanity sprite right now would be foolish. Then, at last, I cross the narrow stone bridge to the fortress where the gate is now open. I check for Siegmeyer, but he's gone - perhaps he went inside. Either way, it's time to storm this place.

The first thing I find is a pressure plate that causes three darts to shoot at me, one at a time; I catch them on my shield to no harm. Next, I'm faced with two serpent-men with shields and big machetes; I'm a bit too confident in how I fight them, and though it's close, they end up killing me. This is when I realize that it really is a good thing I did so much before coming here.

My death spot is just outside the gate, and the snakes haven't changed. I'm a bit more careful this time, mindful of the pressure plate. When I have both of them attacking me from the direction I want to ultimately go, I back up and step on the plate; the darts badly damage both of them, and one goes down with just another swing from my drake sword, leaving me against the other on its own, which is no challenge - I don't even get a scratch.

Behind some urns at the top of the steps where the two serpent-men waited is a corpse carrying the largest soulmass I've found yet. This gives me enough souls to strengthen myself further, and considering how treacherous this place has already proven itself to be, I run back to use them. When I go back inside the fortress again, the snakes have been revived, but the pressure plate hasn't been reset, and they end up killing me all the way out on the bridge to the fortress. That's okay; the pressure plate will be reset now.

Again, I use the darts to my advantage, and though it's still close, I manage to get enough blows on one afterwards to kill it, leaving me with the other, which is again no contest. I do have to use some Estus doing this, however, and since the bonfire I'm starting from was never kindled at all, that leaves me with only four swallows left - I need humanity, but I don't know where to get it. Right now, my best bet is to explore the fortress further.

Through the doorway flanked by statues at the top of the stairs…is another set of stairs. At the top of this, I find myself in an open area; a narrow stone bridge with huge blades swinging back and forth across it is directly ahead of me. Some round-ish cages hang from chains here and there, and spikes line the edges of the ledge pointing outward, almost taunting me with the illusion of being able to walk further than I really can.

This whole setup is ridiculous - the swinging blades, specifically, are downright silly. I look down, however, and see the hulking back of what I now easily recognize as a headless demon. It's a long fall, but probably not fatal; I cast the Fall Control spell, then plunge down on the monster with my sword, figuring I might as well.

The demon turns out to be significantly weaker than the one in the Catacombs; what makes this fight difficult is the fact that down here, the ground is covered with an inch or two of sticky tar that my boots sink into. Still, I manage to kill it, and from it, I don't just get another chunk of strange titanite, I also get its weapon, a catch pole made from titanite - it's as heavy as my drake sword, and in some ways superior, but the basic attack strength is much lower, and it's also a halberd-type weapon; I prefer the sword. Once the monster is gone and I have a moment to think, I remember the muck from the poisonous swamp in Blighttown, and switch out my Darkmoon Seance Ring - which I won't really need right now - for the rusty iron ring. This allows me to move freely.

Suddenly, I'm struck by lightning - not from a headless demon, but from something up above. I hide behind a stone pillar for shelter, then peek around; what I see is what looks like a couple more snake-men, but the ones outside didn't use lightning…I'll need to be careful. There's also another headless demon down here, I notice, and I wonder how many there are in total. Between the rusted iron ring and the strength of my sword, whatever number there might be will go down easily, and I run past the lightning-shooting snakes to fight it. It's inside the second of two rooms through a culvert of sorts, and a couple of bodies are scattered here to loot once it's dead. The fight isn't too difficult, and it's while this one is jumping that I finally realize why these creatures' left sides are so much weaker: They don't have left legs, just stumps where the legs ought to be. I do need to take a single swig of Estus once the fight's over, but the damage isn't too bad. The corpses I noticed earlier are carrying a scythe and another of the huge soulmasses I've only just started seeing in here.

Done here, I jog back out. I have one swallow of Estus left, and I didn't see any ladders inside the two rooms beyond the culvert; right now, I want to hunt these headless demons. After a little bit of exploration, I find a passage to another area still covered in tar, probably beneath another section of the fortress I'm supposed to traverse; I slightly underestimate the range of the lightning-shooters above and get struck once while inside the passage, but then I'm through, and I discover two more headless demons, one close, one far. These, unfortunately, turn out to be about as strong as the one in the Catacombs, and the distant one also notices me just as I start to attack the closer one. This will require some strategy - strategy I don't have time to figure out after the nearer one slams down on me and nearly kills me as I try to run back through the passage. Downing the remaining liquid golden light, I'm left with no Estus, and I still have to find my way out.

It's dark down here, leaving me momentarily disoriented, and I get struck with lightning for my mistake; then, I turn around, going back towards the side of the room that I jumped from. In the corner opposite where I plunged down on the first headless demon, I find some stairs; at the top of them is a small chamber with a wooden ladder to the left. I take it, and climb up, and up, and up…I really didn't register how far I went when I jumped down. At the top of the ladder is a corpse in an open, doorlike window, that's carrying a large soulmass; beyond this, though, is what looks like a doorway walled off by the same concrete that's to either side of the stone, meaning the stones would have been placed in the concrete without the arch they outline even existing. Suspicious, I strike it, and sure enough, the concrete within the arch vanishes, revealing another ladder. Out of pure curiosity, I climb it, and find myself in daylight. This is one of the lower roofs of the fortress.

Far ahead and to my left, I see a hulking figure. There's a tiny chance it's friendly, but I'm more or less certain it's hostile; I debate approaching it with a little more than half my health and zero Estus, and ultimately, I decide to creep forward with my shield and see what this is. When I get close, I see a huge chain on the ground next to it, and suddenly I recognize it - it's the beast that opened the gate after the second Bell of Awakening was rung. It also doesn't seem to notice me, probably just because its back is to me. I hesitate a moment, then run up to strike it.

The moment I take another step, it turns to me; I bait it into attacking, just to see what it will do, and it makes one huge sweep with one fist across the area at its feet, then another huge sweep with the other fist, making sounds of effort that make it seem male. For a second time, I bait it, and it does the same thing. Then, I sprint towards it, aiming to run through its legs; I succeed, and it starts stomping around - I block one stomp with my shield, and otherwise evade. The giant then starts raging around, swinging its arms wildly and roaring and stomping; I keep far away from its tantrum, and then it curls up into a ball and starts making faint noises, as though it's crying. Almost laughing, I start swinging at it; I get a good five or six strikes in before it stands up again. I try running through its legs a few more times to get it to go crazy again and then rest, but it doesn't do it, instead slamming its fists on the ground or swinging them as it pleases. Eventually, I run through its legs, take a swipe or two at one of its calves, then retreat and repeat; I don't get hurt at all during the entire battle, and when it falls, I'm left with a bunch of souls and a chunk of titanite. There's nothing else up here but a gorgeous view of the churches and the surrounding forest.

I slide back down the hidden ladder and jump through the passage the corpse was hanging out of - between the headless demons, the giant, and the soulmasses I've found, I'm already able to strengthen myself a bit further. Some pots smash under my weight when I drop down, and then I'm back on the ledge from which I jumped earlier. Being here, with no other obstacles between me and the exit, I run back to gather some Estus from the bonfire and use the souls I've collected.

That was a lot of fighting in a short period of time, and I haven't really rested for a lot longer than just that. As I sit at the bonfire, I look at my sword, wishing I had more dragon scales with which to reinforce it. It's that moment that she decides to tell me where I can find some more: a secret place below the Blighttown swamp, or the place through the cave below the Darkroot Garden where she told me not to bother going. Annoyed, and tired, I lie down to rest without even deciding what I'm going to do next.


	23. Chapter 22

When I wake, I decide it's time to go to the cave - it's not far from here, after all, and it's the only place left I haven't even tried taking a look at. I run down to the cave with no difficulty whatsoever; one of the plant monsters on the way actually gives me a _blooming_ purple moss clump, and I try unleashing the drake sword's magic on the other, to very satisfying effect, and get a purple moss clump from it too. Briefly, I rest at the bonfire, and then I go forward and find the entrance to a stone tower that is a lift. It's already down, and I have to pull a lever nearby to bring it back up. I'm not sure why this is…Did I go down there once and die? I don't remember ever doing so…

At the bottom of the lift, I find myself in a tower; it feels almost exactly like what met me at the bottom of the lift down to the New Londo Ruins. As I walk, I rack my brains; _have_ I been here before? This feels familiar, I almost feel certain I have, but I can't remember…

I round the corner, and am now on a hill, not stairs; this doesn't feel familiar at all, and I'm somewhat reassured that I've never been here, though I still don't understand why the lift was already down. Here, as well as being on a hill, I also find myself near a vast cliff…and on the grassy ledge of the clifftop is a blue drake.

It's nowhere near as big as the red drake - this monster is only about twice my size - but drakes are powerful creatures nonetheless; I approach with some caution. Once I'm halfway down the hill to the ledge, the drake notices me, and it starts stomping over to me. I hurry around to its back - I can probably ride it the same way I have with headless demons - and to my surprise, it charges up and then releases a blast of _lightning_ from its mouth. This is unexpected, since lightning is legendarily the weakness of all draconian creatures; the blow hits me hard, even through my shield, but not fatally.

When I get to it, I start riding its back, and sure enough, more often than not, I escape harm. It jumps every now and then to try to shake me off; once, its jumping just brings me with it, and it lands with me in the exact same place relative to it. In addition to breathing lightning, it also bites, quite viciously, but my shield can block this. Twice, it gets stunned by my sword and makes a roaring whimper. At one point, it flies up into the air, then goes a short ways forward, breathing lightning along the ground as it goes. I'm badly injured by the time it's done - I do have to drink from my Estus Flask at one point - but it's not too terribly long before the drake falls. Another swig from my Estus Flask heals the last of my injuries.

Now, I have a mossy stone bridge that I can cross, on the other side of which I can see several drakes in close proximity - not a setup I feel comfortable walking into. The ledge also goes along to my left in a very narrow path, though, and I decide to go this way. Around a corner, I find another blue drake. It starts breathing lightning the moment it sees me, and with very little room to maneuver, riding its back is dangerous. At one point, it's against the wall, breathing lightning while I try to heal; I reach a safe point and swing my sword, but just that movement alone pushes me into the lightning's range, and I die.

I'm not deterred; I killed one drake on my first try without dying - something she tells me, through the flames, is more or less the opposite of her experience - so I _can_ go forward. It turns out that these drakes _do_ revive; this time, I ride the first one's back the whole way, and apart from it biting me once, I slaughter it with no problem. Estus quickly heals the bite wound.

The second drake will be tougher because of the enclosed space, but now that I know that, I feel a bit more prepared; I head along the ledge with a slightly greater amount of caution. This time, though it does get a few hits on me - enough to cost me two drinks of Estus to restore myself - once I get on its back, I manage to stay there for the most part. At one point, I nearly slip off the edge (I'm honestly not sure how I manage not to), but after a little while, the drake dies. Once it's gone, I notice an alcove next to where it was waiting with a corpse inside…and the corpse is carrying a Humanity sprite! I take the little black sprite gratefully - I have two now, so I'll be able to kindle the bonfire outside Sen's Fortress when I go back up. I'm far from done exploring, however, so I tuck it away and proceed along the ledge.

Further along, the ledge gets narrower and narrower, and starts to become an uphill slope, but it's still wide enough to climb carefully - if only just - so I do. When I get to a part of the cliff that juts out, which the ledge wraps around, the ledge widens, but I'm still careful. Then, after I'm around the corner, I come to an open space, and hanging off the edge of the far side of the space is what looks like the rotten remains of a large drake…or perhaps an actual dragon. Either way, it seems dead, so I approach it. Under one of its half-rotted claws is a corpse; the beast doesn't stir even when I'm touching it, so I feel confident it's not alive, and pillage the corpse pinned beneath its left paw, which bears a medium-sized soulmass. My plundering still doesn't wake the rotted beast, so I continue looking around it; between its skeletal head with the mouth hanging open and its right paw are two more corpses, one carrying a sword that I recognize as belonging to a high-ranking knight of Astora, the other carrying a Dragon's Crest Shield. It's when I take the sword that the seemingly-dead beast suddenly rouses; I barely have time to take the shield as well before one of its half-decayed arms swipes across the ledge, badly injuring me. It then starts to spew poison from its mouth; I run away, and it doesn't follow me, instead staying where it was resting, now clearly alive and awake.

A safe distance away, I take a swig from my Estus Flask, then look at what I took. The sword has a powerful blessing on it, but it's still far inferior to my drake sword; the shield is another of the legendary enchanted blue shields, like my Crest Shield, this designed to repel fire, but it's inferior to the Crest Shield in every other way. Examination done, I look at the rotting dragon - it's probably a dragon, since it has front legs as well as wings. It isn't moving, isn't even looking at me anymore, and I wonder…If I could get close enough to it to strike it with magic, could I kill it without even needing to get close enough for it to hit or poison me? I take out my catalyst and ready my Great Soul Arrow spell, eager to try it. Just before I do, though, I remember the ring I got from the hydra, the Dusk Crown ring - it will let me cast the spell more times at the cost of half of my health, but if this works, I won't ever be in harm's way. I'm still wearing the rusted iron ring, so I switch it out.

Prepared now, I creep forward, slowly, one step at a time, trying to get just barely close enough to be able to focus the spell on the creature. Eventually I get close enough to aim, but it's still too far away to hit, and I waste one use of the spell; when I step close enough to actually hit it, it notices me and roars, spewing a wave of poison down the ledge as I hit it with the magic. I'm able to get away before the poison touches me; so far so good.

After some experimenting, I discover that even when it breathes a wave of poison at me, the poison doesn't make it as far as where I need to be to hit it; once I know this, I start casting the spell at it as many times as I can; I damage it badly, but run out of uses of the spell well before it dies. For a moment, I stand still and think, ignoring its constant poison waves, then try those throwing knives I picked up an eternity ago; each of them strikes their mark, but they don't do all that much. Momentarily forgetting my bow, I decide there's nothing left for it; I have to engage with this monster in close quarters. I take out my drake sword, switch out my Dusk Crown Ring for the blue tearstone ring - for lack of a more useful ring - take a swig of Estus to restore the health I lost to the ring, prepare to run up to it between waves of poison, and when I think I've hit my window of opportunity, I sprint forward, sword raised.

I make it through a wave of poison without it taking hold; once I'm up against the creature's chest, I start swinging my sword. Instead of swiping at me, like it did when it woke, it just keeps trying to spew waves of poison - which all go right over my head - and I cut it four or five times with my sword with no repercussions. Then it wails and disintegrates, and I'm left with…a dragon scale.

Great. Thanks, love.

Beyond where the monster was resting, the ledge continues, and I resume climbing it. Soon, I come to a rickety-looking plank-and-rope bridge - it doesn't look any less sturdy than the rafters that made up Blighttown, so I cross it without concern. It leads to another grassy ledge along a cliff face - this whole place is a valley, really, with the bottom too far down to be even considered a bottom. A set of planks bridge the narrowest part of the gap between this ledge and the ledge cut into the cliff on the other side of the valley; I decide to follow this side to the end first before I cross it. Just past it, around a corner, I find a path cut into the cliff face; I take it, and soon find planks and stick piles and pots reminiscent of Blighttown. A little ways past the point where I reach this revelation, I find myself against one of the big club-wielding ghouls of Blighttown; I kill it, and it drops a dung pie, which I ignore.

Now I'm curious - I don't remember finding this path when I explored Blighttown, and I want to know where this leads. There's another ghoul just past where I found the first one, but I cut it down without getting a scratch. A little further, I find a third ghoul, which I again defeat with no trouble, and which drops a dung pie that I leave. Beyond that, sure enough, I find myself back in Blighttown proper - about halfway up from the swamp, maybe a bit lower.

On the other end of the set of wooden platforms, I find a treasure chest, in which there's a key; I take it, then climb down the ladder I find nearby, still not sure exactly where I am. The lower level doesn't shed much more light on the matter, but I do discover that I'm low enough to be noticed by mosquitos: a pair comes for me from below. When I kill the first one, I fall down next to a ladder, and the second one almost poisons me as I climb back up; then it's trapped under the platform I'm standing on, and at last, I put the magic in my drake sword to good use by smashing the mosquito through the floor.

I descend the ladder intentionally now, still confused; around a corner is an insectile creature, which my drake sword can kill with just two hits. Down a few more ladders, I find some mosquitos and again smash one of them through the floor with the power of my drake sword, and at last, I come to a place I recognize: The room where the toxin-spitters were, with the pack of red dogs down a ladder where I found the Fire Keeper Soul I still carry. I must have missed this ladder before…which isn't surprising, really, considering how hard it is to see down here. She told me that there's a place below Blighttown where I can find more dragon scales, I know, but right now, I'm going to go back up.

The climb is uneventful, and back outside, in the fresh air, I go back to the bridge I saw earlier and cross it. To the right is a very narrow ledge that ultimately leads to nothing; to the left, I find a corpse with a medium-sized soulmass next to a stone tower with a locked gate - I have the master key, but the key I found in the treasure chest just across the valley is the one that goes here, so there's no need for a trick. I pass through it, descend some stone steps, and find myself down in the New Londo Ruins, right near Rickert…I forgot about the locked gate that was down here; now I have a shortcut to Blighttown _and_ Darkroot Garden.

Since I'm here, I decide to talk to Rickert - it's been so long since I've seen him, and I might as well have him reinforce my drake sword.

"Oh, hello," he says when I round the corner to the barred window of his cell. "What weapons have you brought? Go on; show me."

I do, and this is how I discover that unfortunately, I need two dragon scales to increase the strength of my drake sword further, and I only have the one. He also says he can ascend my +8 broadsword to a magic broadsword, but I lack the necessary green titanite shard. This, though, and the fact that he sells a couple of rudimentary magic spells, makes me think of Griggs, and I ask him about something that's been bothering me:

"Do you know Big Hat Logan?"

"Old Big Hat? Of course I've heard of him," he replies. "Who hasn't in Vinheim? He was a royal member of Dragon School, until he turned Undead. I hear he was quite the character…Only, that was a hundred years ago. What interest have you in the old eccentric now?"

A hundred years ago? Time is indeed distorted in Lordran. "Oh, I was just wondering, since you seem to know about magic," I reply. "How do you work sorcery into a weapon, anyway?"

"Sorcery?" he repeats. "Don't ask me how it actually works. We only fiddle and forge, until it works itself in. That's how we do it in Vinheim, at least. We prefer to leave the theorizing to those uppity scholars." He says the last two words with a tone that almost mocks the stereotypical refined dialect.

I have nothing else to say or ask. "Goodbye, then," I tell him.

"Come back soon," he says. "Smithing helps soothe my nerves. Don't let me wither away out of idleness!"

That _would_ be a terrible fate, I can't deny that. For now, I head back up to the valley of drakes.

Now I have a choice: Seek out the hidden place below Blighttown, or go back up and try again at Sen's Fortress. I'm curious now, incredibly curious, and since I seem to have opened up a shortcut, after a minute's deliberation, I decide to descend to the poison swamp and seek out the place she mentioned, re-equipping the rusted iron ring on the way.

Down ladders, a water wheel, and ramps I go, killing insectile monsters along the way, and soon enough, I'm back in the muck; I have a lot of purple moss clumps from the forest now, so I'm not worried. I get to the bonfire down here and rest, and ask her where I'm supposed to go. She shows me the tree I already searched and found a hidden passageway in; it turns out, there's a second illusory wall behind the treasure chest that was behind the first illusory wall. It's doubtful that I would have found that without her, and I thank her and head straight for it - I know exactly where it is.

Along the way, I find three leeches, and my drake sword slaughters them. I don't bother eating a purple moss clump until I'm climbing the flat root to the inside of the tree; I swing my sword at the wall behind the treasure chest once I reach it, and sure enough, this too is an illusion. Behind it is a long, long path, the walls of wood like the stone walls of a cave, and after a while, I wonder if it's even possible that I'm really in the same tree. Eventually, I come to a ladder leading down; I reach the bottom, feel a bunch of souls flow into me for some reason, and then I find a bonfire on a ledge overlooking a huge network of twisted branches that interlock and run back and forth along what appears to be the central hollow of a tree far bigger than anything I thought possible.

To be safe, I first rest at the bonfire; then, I stand, and begin to slowly descend. Brittle twigs in my path break off of branches as I walk through them. I notice I can't even faintly smell the poison swamp anymore, which is a relief. There is a ledge or two here and there, but most of the path is wooden root/branches with flat tops - how they became flat, I don't know, because the haphazardness of the entire network proves it wasn't done intentionally. Sometimes, I pass other flat branches running alongside the one I'm on, and I'm not sure whether to switch or stay on the one I'm currently following. At one point, I find a hollow in a large wood pillar that could almost be the center of the tree, but though it's cozy - and the perfect place for a bonfire - there's nothing inside. There are also corpses here and there; more often than not, I pass by one as I descend with no idea of how I'm supposed to get to it. The first one I actually reach is carrying a chunk of titanite.

Down a few branches, past a few corpses, I notice a ledge with a space carved into the wall it's beside. A corpse is beside the entrance, so I try to go there. My current root bridge, though it's the path to where I'm trying to go, is blocked by a branch partway down that I can't pass safely; I climb back up, cast Fall Control, and drop down instead. The corpse carries a medium-sized soulmass; meanwhile, inside the hollow are three of the curse-inducing black amphibious creatures with buggy red eyes. One sneaks up behind me while I pillage the body, but I dodge the smoke and cut it down, as well as its two compatriots through the opening; one of them gives me another cursed eye. There's a branch/ledge/ramp in here, but it goes _up_ ; I climb it anyway, and for a moment think I've found a position to reach one or two of the corpses that I may or may not have noticed before - and now I know for a fact that this whole place is going to be an enormous maze. A little ways up the branch this leads to, though, I find that I'm actually on a branch that runs parallel to the one I was taking - this is actually a way to get back up, for after I'm done exploring. That's relatively convenient, but it turns out that I actually can't figure out how to reach one of the corpses I saw from here. Resignedly, I go back down.

Soon, I realize that there are actually a _lot_ of routes I could take to reach the bottom of this place - there are twisted paths, but sometimes jumps could get me to bodies I could pillage. As this is my first time, I take the safe routes. After a while, I reach a long ladder, followed by another, and I really start to wonder exactly how this place came to be. The second ladder leads to what's almost a whole floor of thin, interwoven roots, with a few gaps here and there. A couple of the black creatures are lurking around here; one jumps at me, like the frog it resembles, and though the blow stuns me for a moment, it doesn't hurt me. I have to look around for a while before I find a way below this floor of roots - it turns out to be a ladder near the center of the hollow - but I notice as I search that one gap in the roots will deposit me right on top of a corpse, so I take that instead. The body is carrying a blue chunk of titanite.

As soon as I drop onto this root/branch, three or four black creatures on another root floor below me spray their smoke. They can't reach me up here, though, and after they realize that, they wander to different spots, as though they're on the lookout for me. One of them notices me again and tries again to curse me, but it's still too far below me. I stop for a minute, trying to determine the best way to go about this; eventually, I decide to try a plunging attack on the creature right below me when the smoke is clear - they do keep smoking every now and then while I assess the situation.

The one I plunge down on dies instantly; one nearby goes down quickly. Around a corner, a third and fourth keep trying to smoke me from much too far away; when I run in at a brief smokeless time, one tries to jump at me and falls to its death, and I soon cut down the other one, taking one full lungful of the curse smoke in the process but not succumbing. That's the last of them; a nearby corpse bears a medium-sized soulmass. From the root path the corpse was at the top of, I look down and see another floor, this of a fungus, like mushroom caps growing out of the sides of the wood instead of from stalks. I try to take the path carefully, but I slip; one fungus luckily catches me and breaks my fall before I slip off of it to the ground, barely avoiding death. Mushroom-people are the creatures that live here, and after I take a swig of Estus, I try to go around to get them all in front of me, but one of the larger ones sneaks up behind me and punches me - somehow, that single blow is enough to kill me.

Just like that, I find myself back at the bonfire at the very top of this network. Okay, now I kind of know what I'm doing…kind of. I try again. A little ways down, I get back to the first set of black creatures. It's harder this time, and while I cut them down, the smoke is thick; after a minute, it takes hold. For the first time, I experience a curse: I sink to my knees, my flesh slowly being petrified from the inside out, my brain being the last thing to go so I'm conscious of all of it, unable to even scream as stone spikes burst through my skin from within.

When at last it's over and I wake up at the bonfire, I'm not just Hollow, I'm cursed. My strength has been halved, and I know that even if I gain humanity, I won't be able to make any use of it - though I've been restored by the Darksign, I still feel like my lungs are made of stone, and I can hardly breathe, hardly even feel my heart. I've never felt so Hollow, so _dead_ , before. Trying to take on this place again would not work; I go back outside, to take the shortcut up to the Valley of Drakes as best I can so that I can get to Firelink Shrine through the New Londo Ruins. I'm so distressed, I barely pay a moment's thought to the 18,000 souls I lost.

As soon as I'm out, I run through the poisonous mud to the nearby bonfire. She apologizes for getting me into this mess, but there's nothing she can do to help me. I try to climb up quickly - my body may be cursed, but my sword is still strong - but an insectile thing and a mosquito team up on me halfway up, and I die. My strength being cut like this is truly a curse.

The second time, I make it, and I try to be careful with the ghouls up top, but the two further along the path both notice me at the same time. I still try to be especially tactical about how I fight them, and by pure luck, when I've backed out of the cave far enough, one of them slips off the edge of a platform while the other is one hit away from death. And so, I escape the depths. Across a bridge, through a door, down some stairs, up a bunch more stairs, a lever to call the lift down, and I'm back at the Firelink Shrine.

Now I'm not sure what to do. There isn't even a bonfire here! Before anything else, I take the lift up to the Undead parish and register myself at the bonfire outside Sen's Fortress. Then I go back down, hoping that maybe someone will be able to tell me what to do about my condition. For lack of any better ideas, I ask my acquaintance, but he can only complain about Frampt's stench, so I cut him off before he says any more. No one else is of any help. What am I to do?

Normally, she can only really speak to me through the flames of a bonfire, with the pendant only giving me vague hints when I desperately need them. However, suddenly, the pendant warms against my numb chest, and I get a flash of a memory that is not mine, of my acquaintance saying something about being cursed:

 _"Oi, hold on... Don't tell me, have you been cursed? Oh woe is the Undead who's cursed on top of it all! Harsh times; harsh times, indeed!" He laughs, not quite cruelly, then gets ahold of himself. "No, no, I'm sorry. Here, let me share a nice tip. Long ago, I was told of a remedician who resides in New Londo. Does he really exist? Well, go and find out for yourself. But don't blame me if he's just an apparition!" He laughs again._

I blink the vision away. The New Londo Ruins…Domhnall's tip about ghosts resurfaces in my mind - I'm cursed now, so I can fight the ghosts with impunity. Yes…yes, I can do this, and I will; I take the lift back down and start making my way to the ruins proper. Two hits from my sword - one, if I block an attack first with my shield - are all it takes to slay the ghosts. I'm more than ready to go into the castle ruins, however many ghosts may await me in there.

Just inside, a ghost's scythes come at me through a wall; I back up, waiting for it to come out and reveal itself, then banish it with ease. There's another behind the same wall, which I lure out and destroy likewise. Immediately inside the entrance are two alcoves, one on either side; to the right are some urns, but the other alcove contains a lever to what looks like a lift; I try it, but nothing happens. Beyond this is another doorway, through which I can see a distant ghost; I fear it may be a trap, as the ghost is floating in place doing nothing, but I am not afraid, and I charge in. Three or four other ghosts rise from the floor once I'm in the room, as I expected, but I cut them all down easily - of course, the few scrapes they do leave are much more significant given my weakened state, so I take a drink from my Estus Flask before continuing through the next doorway.

Down a spiral staircase to a lower level, a ledge that is all that remains of a stone floor has a corpse at the end, while a ghost hides in the wall beside it; I don't miss the ghost, and kill it through the wall, then take the parrying dagger from the corpse - more food for Frampt. I then go back and take the other path, the one that was to my right when I came down here; only one ghost appears along the way, right next to a doorway blocked by white light. The path continues on past this and around a corner, however, and I decide to take that first. Another ghost - this one looking slightly different from the ones I've seen - hovers over a corpse, but again, I am not afraid, and charge in. The apparition screams like a banshee when I draw close, but I kill it before it can do anything more; the corpse it was guarding was killed by a curse, and I take its arms to use once I myself am cursed no longer.

Other routes exhausted, I traverse the white light in the doorway, and it fades behind me. Some stairs leading up with no railings are the beginning of a short network of narrow bridges with drops into the water below on either side and only some small pillars holding up roofs as barriers. A ghost is waiting on top of one of the roofs, I can already see; at the top of the stairs is a folded ladder, which I kick so that it extends to the floor below. There will probably be ghosts down there, too, so down I go. The bridge underside in front of me contains no ghosts, but when I follow a dangerously narrow ledge around a corner to my left, I reach a bridge underside hiding two ghosts; these are not a threat. The bottom cleared, I climb back up.

A corpse is on the crumbled end of the bridge in front of me, over which the ghost I noticed earlier lurks; on my way to it, specter blades stab at me through the ceiling, but every strike misses me. The body carries a medium-sized soulmass. Above me, the ghost turns out to be tricky to lure down to a level where I can strike it, and at one point, it actually injures me pretty seriously; eventually, though, I manage to coax it down and destroy it. To my left, the bridge extends unbroken, so I start following that, already knowing that the two ghosts who were lurking below it are not there anymore. No ghosts assault me as I cross the bridge and climb down the stairs to a ledge along the outside of a new building.

Once I get there, ghosts start drifting up from under the water far below to my left, and a few appear through the stone wall to my right. I back up, and the ghosts from inside continue chasing me while the ones from the water return to the depths; I kill both of the ones that stay on me, though I have to be careful not to fall off the sides of the stairs while I do. Nothing bad happens, and one swig of Estus is all it takes to get me ready to face the other three ghosts from below. It's too risky to use my sword against these, since they very much don't want to come close enough for it to be safe to swing my blade; so, I take out my catalyst and start firing Great Soul Arrows at the first one to get close. While I do this, the other two drift up, and one of them stabs me pretty badly - for a moment, I'm certain I'm dead. Then I back up, and they drift back down into the water, so I restore myself with Estus - one swallow is all it takes to fully restore me even from the brink of death, due to the curse. There are only two ghosts left, so I only take a little bit more caution with them. Of course, I start much sooner with these, and they're both gone before they can even get close enough to hit me. One of them drops something, the gleam of whatever it left behind taunting me out in midair, but I have to let it go.

With the ghosts gone, I'm free to take a few stairs to my right that lead inside. Across a narrow hallway, in a room full of urns, I'm attacked by two ghosts, one from above; both go down without much trouble, though the one from high up needs to be taunted quite a bit before it comes low enough for me to hit it. There's a doorway ahead of me, and one to my left; I see a ghost through the left door, so I take that one. The ghost I see turns out to be like the other odd one I saw right before the door blocked by white light, but I cut it down before it even manages to scream; two other ghosts rise from the floor in the meantime, but they go down easily.

Now that this room is clear, I can see a fireplace. Something draws me to it, and inside, I find a ladder, which I climb. A ghost attacks me repeatedly on the way up, and I can't fight back - for a moment, I'm sure yet again that I'm dead. Then I reach the top, and find myself on the roof; up here is a figure cloaked in red with their back to me, looking out over the flooded abyss. The person looks a lot like the corpse from which I looted my tin catalyst, whose clothes I fed to Frampt - they even wield a catalyst just like mine. I approach him, and he turns his head towards me.

"Well, this is a surprise," he says. "I don't get many visitors, except ghosts." I don't have to say anything before he says, "Oh, cursed, are you? Is that what brings you to me? You made a wise choice. Your troubles will soon be over. I am Ingward," he introduces himself. "I'm an old man, bound to these parts. But cleansing your curses; that I can do. The breaking of curses is the territory of deities; you must be prepared to give some of yourself."

"I am Deimos, knight of Astora," I tell him; "what do I need to give?"

The answer, as it turns out, is one humanity. I have none in me now, but I can use one of the two sprites I'm carrying, and I do; I can't even feel it in my bosom through the numbness in my chest. Ingward knows it's there, though, and he taps into it and breaks the curse. Warmth flows through me, the stone in my lungs cracking and crumbling and turning back into flesh, and finally, I can breathe properly again.

"Who are you?" I ask.

"I am the Guardian of the Seal," he replies. "I watch over the Four Kings, the masters of the Darkwraiths. The Darkwraiths are the enemies of man, and any living thing that has a soul. They were born in New Londo, and that is where they perished; the entire city was sacrificed to contain them…For that is how great a threat they were…"

So that's why the place is flooded. I thank him, and go; I don't really feel like climbing back out, so I use the Homeward Bone I got from the demon in the Northern Undead Asylum.

Then I'm back at the bonfire in front of Sen's Fortress; I've lost one of the Humanity sprites, the one I could have used to kindle this flame. I sit down, tired…and that's when she confesses to me: I didn't have to make that journey. The purging stones, sold by Oswald and the near-Hollow woman, break curses, too. Before I can get angry at her, she quickly explains that she was first cursed down in the sewers, before she even reached the second Bell of Awakening, and the warrior by the bonfire in Firelink Shrine provided the only clue she could obtain about how to break it; so, she fought her way all the way through New Londo to reach Ingrid, failing many times and all but outmatched by the ghosts, until finally reaching him. My journey through the place was easy, and the least I could have done was take the harder route like she did, she says. Unhappily, I have to agree with her.

Now I'm not cursed anymore, _and_ I can buy purging stones to take with me back down to the tree in Blighttown so that I don't have to go back if I'm cursed again. I don't feel like taking the trek right now, though; I'm tired, and am only just free of the curse. So, I lie down to rest; though she betrayed me, her love still keeps me warm through the flames, and I can only forgive her.


	24. Chapter 23

I rise, ready to seek purging stones from Oswald of Carim. This is something she never tried, so while I didn't get a chance to prove my strength compared to her, I can at least prove my intelligence. Before I leave, I swap out my rusted iron ring for the Darkmoon Seance Ring, but don't bother attuning another spell just yet. On the way, I almost forget the Hollows I have to go through on the way up, but I remember before I run into them, and though the swarm of ragged Hollows gets a few hits on me, I am not badly injured.

"Greetings," Oswald says when I approach him. "Just in time, art thee not?"

"Have I sinned?" I ask, confused about his word usage.

He informs me that I have not, so I set the matter aside and find that I have enough souls for three purging stones; I buy the lot, then bid farewell.

"Thou art welcome anytime," he says, as always. "It is only human to commit a sin…" He laughs his oddly malicious laugh, and I leave, still unsure what to make of him.

Properly equipped now, I begin the climb back down and through Blighttown. On my way back through the church, I find that one of the ragged Hollows somehow ended up at the bottom of the stairs next to the lift to Firelink Shrine, and I'm rather confused when I kill it. It's the lift I take, to get to New Londo Ruins and then to Blighttown via the shortcut through drake valley, feeding my junk to Frampt on the way; it's only as I go through my stuff to find food for him that I realize I have soulmasses that, as it turns out when I absorb them, could give me enough souls for another purging stone, but I decide not to go back up. The lift to New Londo is down for some reason when I get there, but I don't waste energy wondering about it (it's not until much later that I remember that I used the Homeward Bone).

Nothing bothers me until I reach the ghouls, and those don't bother me all that much at first either. I try two-handing my drake sword on the second one, and it's by experimenting like this that I discover that the power released when it's brought down on the ground with full force doesn't actually hit a foe if the sword itself strikes them; this seems counterintuitive, but I'm far from an expert in draconian magic. With this revelation, I try my newfound tactic on the third ghoul, but it's while fighting this one that my drake sword starts to break, and without my shield in hand to defend myself while I try to deal with this problem, it kills me. When I wake up, I'm back at the bonfire just above Andre's forge, so I go outside to gather some souls using my +8 broadsword, then return to have him repair my sword. This is why it's best to keep some soulmasses on hand instead of absorbing them all, but it's no great inconvenience; my first trip out doesn't quite get me enough souls, but one more Hollow after a bonfire use is more than enough, and I kill three anyway and use the spare souls to repair everything else I have. Then I head down again. There's something I forgot to feed Frampt, so I stop for that, but apart from that, the trek is uneventful.

When I get to the ghouls again, I try to draw one away from the other of the two first monsters (which are close to each other) by attracting its attention with a Great Soul Arrow to the back, but somehow, this draws them both; I fight my best, though, and they go down without too much trouble. I'm not trying to use my sword's magic anymore - keeping my shield up is more important - so nothing goes wrong this time. On the climb down to the swamp bonfire, the bugs are as annoying as ever, but no disasters occur; I switch my Darkmoon Seance Ring back out for the rusted iron ring again to get through the muck quickly, and one sprint, one insectile creature, three leeches (one of which drops a large shard of titanite), and one purple moss clump later, I'm back inside the big tree. Just before I reach the bonfire, I feel the souls of a black creature flow into me, and I smile.

At the bonfire, I swap my rings back out, and attune the Fire Orb spell again. This is when I notice that my repertoire of spells is really lacking, all things considered, and I make a mental note to seek out other sorceries. Then I start climbing down, casting Fall Control preemptively, and this time, I start taking a risk or two to get to some corpses I haven't pillaged. My first such attempt results in me falling to my death, but I'm not deterred; I succeed the second time, and get a red chunk of titanite for my efforts. I also manage to get a white chunk of titanite, and before I jump down to get it, a black creature falls after me and dies when we land; I've completely gone around the place where I was cursed last time. A blue chunk of titanite is also a bounty I pillage; while aiming for a fourth body, I miss and drop to the first floor of roots. My catalyst is the weapon in my hand when I land, and I momentarily forget that when faced with a black creature, so I strike with it instead of my drake sword; nothing bad comes of it. One other black creature falls, and then I continue my descent, taking the ladder I didn't use last time. The four black creatures on the second root floor go down before me with no incidents, and then I'm on my way to the fungal area, casting Fall Control again as I go.

I try jumping down to a corpse I can barely see from above, but I lose track of it as I fall, and eventually find myself on the fungus caps with a small mushroom-person attacking me. Its attack is to simply fall at me, and this hurts a surprising amount, considering its entire body is literally a single mushroom stalk with tiny arms and legs. When I kill it, it gives a cry identical to that of a loon; I take a swig of Estus after the encounter to be safe, remembering the large ones down below. All I have now is a simple path like a spiral staircase of fungus taking me down; near the bottom, four small mushroom-people climb up at me and get cut down easily, the two larger ones waiting below, one at the base, one a little ways behind it. I decide to try a Great Soul Arrow on the nearer big mushroom-person first; it has very little effect, and the creature also doesn't move. I'm not sure what to make of these things. A few more Great Soul Arrows convince me I'm achieving some damage, but not much, so I take out my pyromancy flame and cast Fire Orb; this does nearly twice as much damage, but that's still not a lot. Finally, I simply run to it with my drake sword, keeping in mind to be careful that it doesn't hit me.

The one I'm hitting still doesn't move, nor does the one behind it, but a third comes up and starts swinging at me; I've nearly killed the first before this new third one gets past it and starts fighting me. It turns out that I _can_ take its blows, barely, but after a minute, it somehow backs me into a corner I can't get out of, and this kills me. Again, I've learned a bit more about what I'm fighting, so I go down with a bit more confidence this time.

At one point on the way down, I get lost amongst the network of branches, but soon course-correct; an attempt to reach a corpse I haven't looted misses, and I'm back on the first root floor. The black creatures here go down quickly, as do the ones at the bottom of the ladder - I'm getting good at fighting these off. Then it's back to the fungus; my attempts to reach that corpse brings me closer, but ultimately, I slip. Two small mushroom-people meet me when I land, but I manage to cut them down. Then I reach the spot where I died before, and find that I got stuck because I was in a tiny corner between two fungi; I recover, then start trying to fight the mushroom-people that come after me, but none of the bigger ones are just standing around idly anymore, and I die quickly. I wonder how I'm supposed to fight those mushrooms, if I'm doing something wrong…

Despite my questioning, I get adventurous on the way down this time, and I jump into a large hollow in a chunk of wood to find a corpse carrying a Cloranthy Ring - a ring that invigorates a person, the way the Grass Crest Shield does; I don't have much use for Fire Orb right now, so I swap my Darkmoon Seance Ring out for it. This space I've discovered drops into the hollow I found earlier that didn't seem to contain anything, but I don't take that path, going out the side instead, which brings me to the ledge that leads to the top entrance of the space with black creatures - at the bottom of which I was cursed. I avoid them all and jump down some more; I notice a crystal lizard a ways below that, but I don't manage to reach it in time. Out of pure curiosity, I take a branch path up instead of down, and find myself at the ledge where I was cursed…on which a spiky stone outline of my body still kneels. This is interesting, but I don't take the risk of examining it closely.

It's easy to get lost on the way down to the first root floor, and I do again, slipping at one point, but I find my way. Another attempt at getting to the same corpse I missed last time fails, and Fall Control wears off just before I hit the ground, so I take the landing hard; it's lucky that the black creatures try to curse instead of attacking. The two black creatures here go down quickly, and I decide to look around for another hole in the roots that will lead to a body this time; finding none, I take the ladder. None of the black creatures below manage to even blow smoke, though the fourth one has mysteriously vanished; down here, I do find a hole that will lead to a corpse, and though it's a risky jump, I take it, and gain a white chunk of titanite. Before I reach the fungus level again, though, I slip and fall to my death.

At this point, I don't care about the souls I'm losing anymore - getting to the bottom will be a triumph no matter how much it costs me. Instead, I simply jump down and down and down this time, with little care for what I'm doing, and after a surprisingly long amount of time, I slip and die again. On the next trip, I actually reach my death spot, though there's nothing to recover this time; I also get extremely close to the first corpse that's eluded my grasp thus far, but I slip again and miss it. None of the black creatures bother me too much this time, but I'm really starting to hate the fungus area; I try climbing up the spiral staircase of fungal caps instead of down, but find nothing of use. Then I get trapped between two small mushroom-people and an inconvenient ledge, but I cut them down and make it out alive; after that, I get a large mushroom-person caught on another ledge, but I get cocky, and one of its fists manages to kill me. I'm really amazed at how strong these mushroom-people are.

The next time, I slip and die; this will be a matter of hit-and-miss, that much has become very clear. Still, that just makes me all the more determined to find out what's at the bottom apart from mushrooms. The souls of a black creature flow into me on the next trip down; apart from that, nothing of note happens before the mushrooms except me taking a plunging attack on a black creature that fell down the ladder hole instead of using the ladder myself.

When I reach the fungus this time, I make no jumps, ensuring that all mushrooms I find will have to climb up to get to me; it also helps to know what the way back up will look like. One of the bigger mushrooms backs me into a corner I can't climb out of and kills me when I try to dodge, but that's become par for the course at this point. Next try, I slip and fall. I'm getting annoyed - _she_ did this, why can't I? I slip and fall again on the next try, even sooner than the last; then again on the next try, a bit later; the next time, I try to make what I think is a reasonable jump but isn't. The little branches in my way are really starting to annoy me now - I'm getting angry, and impatient.

A black creature manages to follow me without falling to its death on the next try, but I kill it without difficulty; I make it down to the fungal area with no real problem this time, even manage to get to a corpse that was carrying a chunk of titanite. The mushroom people are just below that, a long way down, and I'm tempted to make a plunging attack on them but don't know if I can safely make the fall. Nothing stops me as I get down to the ending part of the fungus stairs, and as I'm cutting down small mushroom-people, I get an idea. I wait until all three of the larger mushrooms are well in pursuit of me, then jump down from a little ways up the fungal stairs and run to the exit. The exit turns out to be a passage that seems far too narrow for the large mushroom people; if I don't rest at any bonfires down here, I can kill them using a bottleneck and make it out alive. At the end of the path is a wall of white light, but I don't traverse it yet for that reason.

The bottleneck strategy works like a charm, and one by one, the big mushrooms fall. I even use the magic of my drake sword on the third one a couple of times, just for fun. Then I traverse the white light, which dissipates behind me, and follow a path through the rest of the tree and down a root bridge to a big island of ash in an enormous underground lake.

Immediately to my left, I notice a hydra in the water; I run to my right, around one of the natural walls of wood around the bridge down here, and find a bonfire, which I light but don't rest at because of the mushrooms. Only then do I stop to take a look at my surroundings, and I see an endless field of tree trunks in all directions, branching up into the earth above, under which a haze slowly drifts, giving the illusion of clouds in a sky. I know I must be far underground, but it doesn't feel that way - there's light filling this place somehow, and it feels more as though I've stepped into another world, someplace sacred.

After I finish taking in the view, I start looking around - she said I could find dragon scales down here, and that's what I'm going to get. I go around under the bridge to a small grove of treelike appendages growing up from the roots; the hydra notices me, swims to shore, and starts shooting water missiles at me, so I turn and run to follow the other shore, behind an ash ridge. The ash dunes are slippery when they're steep, and once or twice, I'm worried I'll drop into the water or get hit by the hydra. A hollow log provides shelter and passage to the safe side of a ridge, and inside is a corpse carrying a dragon scale.

 _Finally_.

The hydra keeps shooting water at the other side of the ash ridge; I stay on this side and run along to see what else I can find. After a while, the hydra simply leaps over the ash island to the other side, and a giant clam with insectile legs comes for me; I try fighting the clam at one point, but quickly give up and keep running when it proves too strong. I find another corpse carrying a dragon scale, gratifyingly, but I try to run as much as I can. I'm afraid of this hydra - there's no place to hide near it safely where it will try to strike me with its heads. At one point, I get dangerously close to the beast, but start running along a narrow ash path that leads to another enormous tree, thinking it might be a way out. Before I can get there, however, some of the hydra's water missiles hit me from behind, and I die.

I'm back at the top of the tree now. I'm glad I didn't rest at the bonfire down there - I don't need the souls I lost, though it was a few thousand; I found a couple of dragon scales, and that was all I was after. I'll go back down for more much later, after I'm stronger; for now, I turn around and leave, climbing my way back out of Blighttown, using the rusted iron ring to get me through more quickly. The monsters on the way are laughable compared to what I've been dealing with up until now.

I do, of course, need a lot more souls if I'm going to make use of my dragon scales, but that's not too difficult of a chore - I get a couple thousand just by climbing out of Blighttown. In addition, I take the long way up to Andre's forge, killing everything I find along the way including the crestfallen Hollows. A firebomb destroys a door a little ways past the first Undead Burg bonfire (which amuses me), one blow from my sword is enough to knock shields out of Hollow soldiers' hands (two for the later ones, but still), and one Hollow drops a shard of titanite; other than that, there's nothing of significance, but I'm somewhat surprised when I still don't have quite enough souls when I get to the forge. It occurs to me that I've lost tens of thousands of souls just getting these dragon scales, and it also occurs to me that I never used those purging stones (though I'm sure I'll be glad to have them if I ever go back); but the forest can provide me with enough souls to finish my sword, so I go back and kill the plant monsters a few times until I'm ready, happily gathering several of all three types of moss as I do so. Then, at last, I upgrade my drake sword.

There's no reason not to take on Sen's Fortress now - I've put it off for far too long. I rest briefly at the bonfire, then charge in.


	25. Chapter 24

I don't bother even going down to look at the headless demons - it's time to progress. The snake-men are as strong as ever, and I'm not much stronger than I was before, truth be told, but I stop worrying about that and go. The swinging blades aren't a challenge once I get their rhythm down, which I do almost immediately, probably because of her; there's one snake-man waiting between two sets of blades, but I cut it down.

There are a lot of the same statue lining the walls here. Across the bridge and up some stairs is another bridge crisscrossed with swinging blades; at the other end of this is a cobra-man with blades in a wiggly shape, which turns out to be the creature shooting lightning around here. Past it is a room with a treasure chest - guarded by a dart booby trap - containing two large shards of titanite; there's a door out of here, but it takes me a moment to notice it. This brings me to some stairs to a short bridge with another bridge running perpendicular a little ways below it; a snake-man is sleeping against a wall. Something tells me there's something significant about that wall, so when I wake up the snake-man (which requires a blow from my sword), I lure it into hitting the stone bricks; after a few hits, it comes crumbling down, revealing a room full of cages hanging from chains. This snake-man is stronger than the earlier ones, though, and in a close match, it kills me before I can really explore. I get up at the bonfire and go charging in again, undaunted.

This time, I make full use of the first booby trap again, and it kills one snake-man so I have the other to myself; it's no contest. The snake-man on the bridge is tougher to beat this time, but I manage; the cobra-man up top hits me with lightning twice between bridges. The wall is fixed when I get to it again, but I do a plunging attack on the snake-man anyway, now that I know how much stronger it is than the others; it takes some more baiting, but eventually I get it to break down the wall again, and after that, I kill it without too much difficulty.

In the room full of cages, I find one with a person in it wearing an enormous hat that's just barely small enough to fit inside. I approach. "I am Deimos of Astora," I tell him.

"Mm, you seem quite lucid!" he comments. "A rare thing in these times. I am Logan. I am a bit cooped up, as you can see." He pauses for a moment, then says, "I have a bright idea: Suppose you set me free? I'm old and empty-handed, but I could repay you with knowledge, and sorcery. This place is melting my mind. The inactivity is repressive."

I don't have the key, but I wonder if my master key will work; I try it, and it does. At last, the purchase pays off - I'm glad now to have bought it.

"Oh, heavens, thank you. I'm saved," he says. "And, I'd love to resume my travels, but I must log a few things first, and I owe you a favor. I will return to Firelink Shrine. Speak with me there, so that I may impart my sorcery."

Nodding, I turn to go; he makes no indication of leaving. "Do you need me to see you out?" I ask him. "It's not too far, and I'm right here."

"Oh, hello," he teases. "Don't mind me. Go on ahead. I'll be along later." He gives an odd sort of laugh. "I'll be just fine, young one," he reassures me.

Convinced enough, I bid farewell. At the end of the room, I find a cage containing a corpse; the master key opens it, and the corpse turns out to be bearing what is by far the hugest soulmass I've ever seen, which I save for now. The end of the room doesn't have a wall, and I've noticed that the floor is slightly concave, as though something is supposed to roll down it; I make a mental note of it but nothing more, then go back out and take the upper bridge to the doorway that leads forward - some stairs lead from the other end of this bridge back up to the first.

Through it, I'm immediately met by a snake-man, who is promptly bowled over by an enormous boulder rolling past from left to right. It doesn't take too much damage, and during my fight with it, another boulder conveniently knocks it off its feet just before it slashes me. Once it's dead, though, the boulders become a problem. I decide to go down the ramp it's rolling along first, just to see what I might find. Down here, I find a couple of snake-man corpses, and past them is Siegmeyer of Catarina, sitting on a ledge.

"Mm, mmm," he murmurs as I approach. "Mm! Oh-hoh!" he exclaims, noticing me. "Ahh, where did you come from? Splendid news, I tell you. First, I hear a great roar. And, voila! The path is open. Just goes to show. Good things come to those who wait!" He laughs heartily.

I decide not to point out his error, and instead I say, "You seem to be stuck again, though."

"Mm, mmm…" he mumbles. Then he acknowledges me again and says, "Ah, so you see my plight? Yes, indeed, I have run up against a wall…Or, a ball, to be precise…I'm afraid I'm a bit too plump to be outrunning those things. So, here I sit, in quite a pickle. But who knows? Perhaps we'll have another development?" He laughs again.

"I'll see what I can do," I tell him pointedly.

But he's talking to himself again. "Perhaps I could try some rolling…" he muses. "Bah, no chance. My head would spin. Mmm…"

With a sigh, I shake my head and leave him to his hopelessness. There's nothing behind him, so I climb back up the ramp, doing my best to dodge the boulders however I can. First, I duck in the entrance I came through; then, once a boulder has passed, I run further up, ducking into the first doorway I find just in time. A cobra-man notices me and starts approaching me, but a boulder lands on it, and it's dead. The doorway I'm in is blocked by white light; I pass through it, and it dissipates behind me, leaving me in what I initially dare to hope might be a safe room. This hope is shattered when a snake-man comes through a doorway at me, but I kill it.

Through the doorway from which the snake-man entered is a pressure pad that I can't avoid; I turn around, shield raised, not sure if I'm trying to block or flee, but the darts turn out to come from behind me, so I catch them on my shield and am not harmed. On the other side of the passage is a room nearly identical to the one I just left, with some stairs leading out. The stairs take me to another boulder path - it can't possibly be connected to the one I just ran through, but boulders come rolling down all the same, and I wonder if there are several rolling boulders or if the boulder-rolling mechanism is being moved to target me.

Since I'll be facing boulders either way, I go back to the first place and run the rest of the way up to see what I might find; as I do this, I hear a metallic screech, and soon, boulders are falling behind me, suggesting that something is indeed moving to aim specifically at me. This room is full of statues, and a single treasure chest contains a Ring of Steel Protection, which I swap out my Cloranthy Ring for. There's no other way out of this room, so I go back to the first place I went. I decide to try running up the ramp; one boulder hits me, but I get up and keep going, and then a second one positively crushes me, and I have to start over. No matter.

Experience gained, I make my way through the fortress again. The snake-men are getting easier to contend with, and the cobra-men are mostly only dangerous if they have a chance from a distance, a chance I don't give them; the first one I take down _does_ cut me pretty badly in the process, though, and I use a clump of bloodred moss just in case. Those boulders aren't rolling down the first path initially; I wait, and eventually they start coming, bowling the cobra-man over. I time my run up the second ramp carefully, and though a boulder does hit me once, it ultimately knocks me _into_ the room from which the boulders have been coming: They drop down on a central pedestal, one at a time, and a contraption knocks them down one of four paths. There's a lever, and I could easily try to mess with the mechanism, but I don't, instead taking the one path that isn't a boulder route.

Up a few stairs, a pressure plate is set before a row of dart-spitters; I activate it and then run back, and am not hurt - something she never figured out. Through another room, across an even narrower bridge more packed with swinging blades than before, I'm on a long balcony; a snake man guards a hole at one end - a hole I'm not willing to test - and around some stairs the other way, another snake-man is guarding a corpse. As I fight off this snake-man, a cobra-man sneaks up behind me, and soon I'm fighting them both, but with a running attack on the cobra-man, I defeat them, getting two large shards of titanite from the body.

The next set of stairs leads to the narrowest possible bridge with swinging blades and a cobra-man shooting lightning from an alcove to the left. I cross without incident, dodge a pressure plate, and run around to the cobra-man's perch; one swing from my sword knocks it off the ledge to its death. Back around, past the pressure plate and a second attached to the same trap, some more stairs lead to a doorway walled off by white light, which dissipates behind me.

Now, suddenly, I'm outside, on the rooftops of the fortress - I must be reaching the end. There are some stairs leading down to my right, and I take them, running into a couple of Hollow knights far stronger than any I've encountered before; past them, find a treasure chest holding a Flame Stoneplate Ring - yet more protection against fire, should I ever need it. Back up the correct way, I pass a huge black mark on the ground; when I run past it up some more stairs, an enormous flaming cannonball explodes on the spot I just took note of, bathing the whole floor in fire. The same starts to happen up top once I'm close; a corpse bearing a huge soulmass - second only in size to the one I found down below - is my reward for braving my way through the flames instead of taking the shortcut to the next stairs.

But now, I'm out of Estus. Being so far through, I don't want to go back down, and through the pendant, she tells me to run across the fire field and fall off a ledge; I trust her, and find a bonfire on a tiny balcony, which I gratefully light and sit down at. It's a small bonfire, of course, and I can only get enough Estus for five swallows, but it's something, and more importantly, I now have a checkpoint up here. The way indoors leads to a small room that grants passage to the staircase I took to get outside; I drop down, then start climbing up again. On the way, though, it occurs to me that with the soulmasses I've collected, I can strengthen myself, so I brave the explosives to drop down to the bonfire again.

Back up a third time, and this time for real. I run past the char marks and am unharmed; a burned up body carries two large shards of titanite. Past the furthest char mark is a balcony, and on that balcony, I find a black knight; this one uses a mace and a greatshield, just like the one in the church, and I cut it down with laughable ease. Beyond that is a ladder leading down to a rampart that goes to a set of stairs that lead up and up around a square tower; on the second landing of the stairs is a Hollow knight like no other. This one is quick, and tries to dodge even though the space leaves no room for it. When it falls, it fades from existence like a Hollow with a soul, and it leaves behind an intricately decorated rapier…Undead Prince Ricard's rapier. So this is where he ended up. Beyond him is a room with two treasure chests, one containing a Rare Ring of Sacrifice - which is shaded magenta, and can break a curse upon death as well as the usual things - and the other containing a Divine Blessing, a flask of holy water that works like Estus but can't be refilled.

The side path taken and conquered, I climb back down the stairs, then back up the ladder; with the enormous soulmass I found below and what I gathered from the black knight and the Undead prince, I can strengthen myself again, so I return to the bonfire and do so. I also check the rapier, out of pure curiosity; it is far inferior to my drake sword.

When I get the top of the stairs to the outside this time, I see a giant across a gap picking up and dropping boulders through a hole; that must be where the rolling boulders come from. This time, I go up and around the blast zones the other way, to some stairs leading higher. A set of bridges is past this, though it takes me a moment to see them; out a short ways is a crossroads, and a gap in the path leading left is one I could probably jump, but don't bother to do so right now. To the right is a tower, to the left of which is a narrow passage containing a strong Hollow knight, which I defeat and gain a shard of titanite from. There's nothing else this way, so I go back the other way and cross a bridge into another tower room, in which there are two cages. My master key doesn't work on these, though they appear to possibly be some sort of elevator mechanism; I'll have to find the real key somewhere else. Across the room is a doorway leading up to a balcony that wraps around what's left of the fortress up this high and leads to another narrow, banister-less bridge with a couple of right turns. I see a blast mark near one of the corners, so I run the whole way. A Hollow shoots bolts at me from a crossbow from high up, but I cut it down with one blow when I reach it.

Behind the Hollow is another tower room, and here I have a choice. To my left is a doorway walled off with white light - at this height, it's probably a monster's territory. Ahead of me is a bridge to another tower. To my right is some stairs leading up; I heard the giant that's throwing flaming cannonballs make a noise just above me when the shell exploded far behind me on the bridge I just crossed, so it's probably up there. I try the bridge first; this leads to a room with wooden chairs and a table and absolutely nothing of any use. With that route exhausted, I decide to climb the stairs. On the way back, from outside, I can see the place the white-light-blocked doorway leads to, and I do indeed see an enormous metal golem.

Just in case, I take a swig of Estus before climbing the stairs. I needn't bother; the doorway to the giant is small, and when it can't reach me, it throws a tantrum like the first one did, resulting in it curling up and resting. I get it to do this twice, and cut it down with ease; I find the fire cannonballs up here, and they turn out to be shells that easily smash under my sword, but there's nothing else to find.

Now I wish I had the key to that cage - some way to go down quickly that I could later take back up. I have plenty of large shards and chunks of titanite, and I know Andre could reinforce my gauntlets and leggings if nothing else; I'm not sure I'm ready to fight the huge metal golem I can see from up here. After some deliberation, I decide to go and try to jump that gap in the bridge I saw earlier - maybe the key is that way.

On the way down, I notice that the black knight from before has been revived since I used the bonfire. Luckily, it's not on my way, though I could kill it again easily. Before I try the jump, I cast Fall Control just in case; a lucky thing, as I fail to make the jump. I do land near a corpse carrying a sniper crossbow and some sniper bolts, though - even if I can't make much use of them, I can always feed them to Frampt.

Casually, I climb back up to try the jump again; without the bombshells, there's no risk. A Hollow knight on the way gives me a titanite shard, and even though I think it's too small to reinforce anything I intend to keep using, it just makes me want to get back to Andre that much more. I cast Fall Control again, but this time, I make the jump; across the bridge and inside the tower, I find an Undead standing in a corner behind a table and some chairs. He is not hostile, so I approach him; he makes a low droning sound, like a snore.

"Hello?" I ask.

"Ah, what? What? Who are you?" he exclaims, roused. He sees me. "Ahh, another Undead, eh?" he says.

"I didn't expect to find anyone here," I tell him.

He nods, as though with sympathy. "I took on Sen's Fortress alone," he says. "But I'm no different from those vile creatures…I was driven by conceit…"

"It's not conceit when you're not Hollow," I respond, contemptuous for his self-pity.

"Ahh, you think you're different?" he says. "That you can handle it? Yes, I remember that feeling. For I was the same…So let me help you out. With your soul-searching."

"What help can you offer?" I ask.

He shows me what he has to sell. He sells black firebombs and green blossoms, large and green shards of titanite as well as normal shards, some weapons, a couple of sets of exotic armor (including a set from Catarina), feathered arrows as well as basic ones, and a Thunder Stoneplate Ring and a Spell Stoneplate Ring. He has good wares, but nothing I both want and can also afford.

"Who are you?" I ask instead.

He shakes his head. "There's nothing more to say," he insists. "I'm finished. We're both on the brink, you see? End of story. You bloody fool."

"It's far from the end of the story," I spit. "You made it this far! But if you don't want to keep trying, fine, I'll do it for you."

This is met with a sigh. "Let me give a nibble of advice," he says. "Don't even consider visiting Anor Londo. Not in your state. For a century, they have tried, and failed. The Knight King Rendal, Black Iron Tarkus, and even Logan himself. You won't stand a chance. You'll be eaten alive. But, go along, if you wish. If only to deepen your despair!"

"I will," I reply. "I am Deimos, knight of Astora, and I don't care who's failed before me. Farewell."

"Nothing at all?" he asks. "Fine then, rush in like a naked babe and be skinned alive."

I shake my head with contempt, but leave him to his pessimism. There are some stairs in here, so I take them. Down, and down, and down, and down…after a while, I wonder if this will actually lead me out of the fortress, it's going down so far, around and around the square tower's walls. Eventually, I reach the bottom, and find a bridge with a cobra-man that I quickly slay. Beyond this is a body, and on this body, I find a key. Is it _the_ key? Well, there's only one way to find out. I climb all the way back up to try it; I fail to jump the gap, but cast Fall Control before trying, so no harm is done, and I simply climb up again.

It works. I open the cage and step into it, and just as I hoped, it takes me down, all the way down to the first bridge with the swinging blades. Eager to get down to business, I ignore the snake-men and run all the way back to the old church where Andre still beats away at his weapons. After resting at the bonfire - just to be safe - I go down and have him reinforce my armor with the large shards of titanite I've gathered. It turns out that I need more normal shards of titanite before the large ones can be made use of, but I've gathered plenty, and only need six more, which I buy with plenty of souls to spare. With that, I start using the large shards of titanite I've gathered, and soon my gauntlets and leggings are both at +5. It's the most I can do right now, but I feel accomplished. What I could _really_ use is some twinkling titanite, but I have no idea where to find the stuff, and in any case, I've done more than enough exploring.

Feeling more prepared, I return to the fortress and go back up, taking the cage lift; the crossbow-wielding Hollow up top even gives me a shard of titanite when I cut it down. Then I'm at the door blocked with white light, beyond which I know is an enormous metal golem. If there's one thing I've learned about enormous creatures, though, it's that their size is their weakness - if they're big enough, staying close to their legs is excellent protection. With all that in mind, I traverse the white light and face the monster.

The creature wields an enormous metal axe, with which it can throw what seems to be shock waves. My stay-close tactic itself is sound, and I get a few hits on it with impunity, but I fail to realize that the parapets surrounding this place where the battle is waged are crumbled; I slip and fall to my death. No matter; now that I know that, I can do even better - the lift is made of two cages, so I can still get back up quickly.

It costs me a couple of swigs of Estus to get back up, between a certain snake-man and the crossbow-wielding Hollow near the top, but that doesn't concern me all that much. Once I'm through the white light again, I run to the giant, waiting just long enough for its shockwave to hit a bit of rubble. Once I'm at its legs, I swing my sword, making sure to keep moving. Once or twice, it tries to grab me from beside it, but I'm well out of the way by the time it does so. It stomps and swings its axe, and one stomp gets me on the shield, but after a little while, it simply stops attacking, swaying as though dazed. I take advantage of this and start slashing wildly, and after several hits, it falls down on its back; by chance, what's behind it is a long drop, and it falls off the edge and dies, leaving me with the Core of an Iron Golem - a creature apparently made from the bone of a dragon - and a Humanity sprite.

I'm left standing victorious, feeling cheated. That should have been a tremendous battle, but it ended before it should have even been half over! _She_ defeated the monster without chance like that, I could have too. I sigh, then decide to simply be grateful for my victory.

A small ring of golden light hovers over the center of the rubble on the battlefield. I decide to leave it be for now, and go back down to restore my body and kindle the bonfire above Andre - yes, the battle here is done, but I want to kindle that bonfire. So I return to the cage lift. I don't use the Humanity sprites I have until I'm out of the fortress, just to be safe, but I make my way down with absolutely no difficulty.

It feels _so_ good to be whole again; I take a minute to just enjoy it. I tell her about the funny circumstances that led to my victory, and she laughs - she had some trouble with that creature, but it was almost as if it simply _wanted_ me to get past. She's still proud of me, though. Smiling, I thank her and start to ascend the fortress again, but when I meet with the first two snake-men, I realize I also have a ton of souls I can use to strengthen myself, so I go back and do that quickly, then turn around again and go back up.

Up top, I see the ring of golden light again, and realize that somehow, this is the passage to Anor Londo, city of the Lords. I put away my weapons and remove my helm, then walk forward slowly, both respectful of and savoring this moment; I reach the strange ring, and I bend down to touch it, unsure what else there is to do. Nothing seems to happen, and I stand.

Suddenly, I hear a sound high above; I turn and look up, and see some winged creatures flying straight towards me - they're pink, apparently completely bare-skinned, somewhat batlike and vaguely humanoid. Two of them descend and grab me; I struggle for a moment, but soon give up. Holding one of my arms each, the two creatures lift me into the sky, while a third one points with some sort of weapon in a direction high above a cliff next to Sen's Fortress. We rise into the air, and once we get over the cliff, I see golden sunlight backing the profile of the great Anor Londo.

The sight is breathtaking. It's like I'm looking at a city of gold - the sunlight here, the golden sunlight, warms my skin like sun hasn't since before I became Undead. And as I take in the view, I fully register that _I_ _made_ _it_. I'm in the kingdom of the gods.

The creatures drop me at the top of a tower near the edge of the city, not too gently, but I'm not injured. All the clean, solid, sandy-pink stone around me is such a sharp contrast to the various ruins I've been trekking through all this time. Still, the Lords are long gone, I know, and I need to be careful, even here. I stand in respect of this place for a moment longer, then draw my weapons and don my helm before walking down the steps in front of me.

Banisters, _whole_ and _unbroken_ banisters, line the stairs, a luxury I'd all but forgotten about. It's a long set of stairs I descend before I find a short bridge to what looks like the balcony of a large building. At the end of this balcony is a giant set of knight armor, two or three times my size, carrying a shield and halberd. I approach cautiously, my shield up; is this creature friendly, or is its mission to kill anything that tries to trespass? Once I'm close enough, I get my answer - it attacks me. It seems to like slamming its shield down on the ground with all its strength, which admittedly makes a shock wave but also leaves it vulnerable for a healthy portion of time; it also gives two consecutive swings of its halberd occasionally, and once even jabs at me with it. Still, I take it down with ease and no injury.

Proud, I go inside. Soaring Gothic archways and pillars make every building in this place so ornate; a checkered white-and-black tile floor towards the center of the room adds to the tasteful decoration. To my left is a pair of giant knight-armor-creatures in front of a statue, but I go right and out a door. All this light-colored stone, shaded oranges and pinks by the golden sun…it's beautiful here. A huge outdoor courtyard gives a good view of the many towers to my right and a mountain up ahead; I take a door to my left, and descend some stairs into a room with a kindled bonfire. Leaning against a wall at the far right-hand corner is a person dressed in golden armor - they look a little bit like Knight Lautrec. I stop to rest at the bonfire first, and find that it does indeed fill my Estus Flask with enough for ten swallows. Then I stand and approach the person, and they - _she_ \- speaks.

"Well, you are a rare visitor," she says. "Welcome to the lost city of Anor Londo, Chosen Undead. If you seek Lord Gwyn's old keep, exit here and head straight yonder. If you are the chosen one, a revelation shall visit thee. What follows thereafter depends upon you."

"Thank you," I reply. "I am Deimos of Astora. Er…"

"Hm, what is it?" she asks.

"Who are you?" I finally manage.

"What am I?" she almost-repeats. "Well…I am the Keeper of the bonfire. If not for me, what beacon would there be in this lost city? A gatekeeper, and a guide; that is my calling."

"A Fire Keeper," I breathe. "I thought…I thought there was only the one, at the Firelink Shrine…" The one that's dead now.

"The bonfires attended by the Keepers are special," she tells me. "They are linked to one another, and their flames never die. Yet never shall the Keepers of these flames meet…"

"I…see," I respond. "I have a Fire Keeper Soul here - can you use it?"

She reinforces my Estus Flask with the soul I obtained down in Blighttown. Then I leave her be.

This old chore finally done, I sit down at the fire again. The clean stone tile floor beneath me, while hard, isn't cold and damp like what I've grown used to. Combined with the fact that _I_ _made_ _it_ …I'm proud, and tired. I lie down, on a clean floor, her love and the outside sunlight warming me, and fall asleep.


	26. Chapter 25

When I wake, the first thing I notice is the warmth that's coming from places other than just the bonfire. The second thing I notice is a noxious stink.

I rise to my feet, looking around. Everything is beautiful and clean. It takes a minute before I realize that the the smell is coming from _me_ \- I've been through the Blighttown swamp and a few other places since the last time I washed, and the muck doesn't offend much less for having dried (if anything, it's worse). Still, I'm in Anor Londo; I'm not going back just to clean up, even if I'm also kind of offending the beautiful city with my filth.

Determined, I climb the stairs out of the room and into the vast courtyard, and again am momentarily in awe of the golden sunlight. Across from me, I can see a tower, but there were soldiers in the area that's now to my right, and another building is to my left. I decide to explore left first.

Through the soaring archway, I find a room mirroring the one I came through. There are two giant armor soldiers here, too; they're strong, and their impenetrable shields almost seem to attract my sword like magnets, but I manage to overcome them both. Behind where they were standing is a statue of a large, fat knight holding a golden hammer that has a head about as big as I am, flanked by two treasure chests. The one to the left seems to be an oddly darker, redder color than the other, though, and I'm suspicious. Before I open either of them, I swing my sword at them; the one one the left is safe and contains a chunk of twinkling titanite, but the one to the right spouts a huge tongue and arms and stands up when struck.

Even though I was suspicious, I'm not prepared for this. The creature's upper body and head is a treasure chest that also serves as its mouth, with razor-sharp teeth and a huge grotesque tongue but no eyes; long, thin arms spout from either side of the chest, with hands ending in sharp claws, and a skinny narrow lower body sports longer, thinner legs that walk towards me. It can slash and kick, but a short way into the battle, it picks me up and eats me, chewing me long after I'm dead.

Hollowed and annoyed, I rise at the bonfire. I go back to face the thing again, and find that the giant armor soldiers I saw before have been revived as well; I defeat them, then start fighting the fake treasure chest again, which has returned to its place next to the statue pretending to be a real treasure chest. As I dodge it more carefully this time, I start to notice the odd, almost chuckling noises it makes; it's a good fight, but it ends in me getting eaten again. Still undeterred, I go back and try again, and the third time's the charm; the creature tries some running, spinning kicks along with the slashes and standing kicks, but when it tries to grab me to eat me, I stay well out of its way. When it falls, it drops a crystal halberd, a powerful weapon that is somehow only as heavy as my drake sword and that I _am_ actually strong enough to wield, but which is also weaker than my sword and would quickly shatter anyway; besides, it's a halberd.

As I noted earlier, this room mirrors the one I came through, so there's an exit just like the entrance to the other one, and outside this is also another armor soldier. These are becoming easy for me to handle, so I take it down soon with little injury, and get its halberd from the fight - this one much too heavy for me to lift, but still far inferior to my sword anyway. The stairs leading away from the balcony it was on are behind where it was standing on this side, instead of in front of it, and when I take them, I eventually find myself on a grassy slope that goes up the side of the mountain I saw earlier. I climb it, and soon reach a vast doorway blocked by a wall of brilliant golden light. This light is different from any I've seen, but I approach it anyway; I reach out a hand to see if I can traverse it, and am immediately met by a solid wall. Runes appear in the light:

"Sealed by the Great Lord's power"

But _I'm_ the Great Lord, or will be! I should be able to undo it! However, I can find no means of doing so, at least for now, and I eventually turn and leave. There's nowhere else to go this way, so I head back to the bonfire to strengthen myself with the souls I've gathered - the monsters here give a substantial amount each.

The Fire Keeper here told me to go forward from this room, but I haven't explored the room to the right - and if it's as mirrored as it seems, then I've passed up a treasure chest. Once I defeat the armor soldiers, I discover only one chest, and strike it before opening it just to be safe; it's real, and contains another of those odd chunks of titanite I get from the headless monsters. The statue on this side is different, too, this of a much more dignified-looking knight with a huge golden spear.

That's all the exploring left for me; it's time to move forward. Inside the tower I've been passing until now is a patterned floor, the circular center of which turns out to be a lift that takes me down to a spiral staircase far below. Ornate wrought iron bars wall off the lift's mechanism, a sort of giant screw that turns one way and then the other to bring it up and back down. At the bottom of the steps is an archway that opens to a bridge narrower than anything I've seen thus far in this abandoned city - though it's still plenty wide - and on it is a gargoyle. This is smaller than the one from which I took the helm I now wear, and one lucky strike to its tail gives me _another_ axe, but this turns out to also be able to breathe lightning like a blue drake, and though the fight is close, it kills me.

Since there's no other way for me to go anyway, I go back down to try again; the lift is now rising and falling continuously, instead of waiting for a passenger like it seemed to be doing when I first found it. The gargoyle is still strong, and it's nimble, rarely leaving me a chance to attack; I have to take risks, and get hurt more often than not. I wonder how I'm even supposed to defeat this creature. At one point, it knocks me off a ledge, and for a moment, I'm certain I'm dead, but this turns out to be how I discover that there's a set of ledges around the tower through which I descended, and that an archway through the bridge leads to some stairs on the left (if exiting the elevator room) that bring me back up to the bridge. This is important, as once I finally kill the gargoyle, I discover that the bridge itself leads to a bottomless pit that I cannot jump across. I turn around and go back up the stairs towards the elevator so I can go around the right and down the stairs that lead to the lower ledge; I go through the passage under the bridge and around the outside of the tower, but all I get for this is a treasure chest containing another odd chunk of titanite.

Confused, I go back. Through the passage under the bridge again, I discover that a single buttress can be accessed and climbed from here; with no other ideas, I try it. The buttress leads high up, to above a small balcony outside a set of windows; one of the windows is broken, and through it, I enter. Inside, I'm on a balcony high above the floor of a vast room. I go to my left and see a ladder; moments later, a white-robed warrior with a short blade in each hand drops from above. I turn around and kill it easily, but when I do so, another sneaks up behind me and stabs me in the back, injuring me severely. Before it can strike again, I turn back around and cut it down, heal myself with Estus, then resume exploring. There's nothing on this level but the ladder, so I climb it, suddenly realizing as I do so that I have no way to get back to the bonfire. Oh well.

High up, I'm left stranded on an oddly intricate network of rafters barely wide enough for me to stand on; I see more white-clad figures waiting for me up ahead, standing on the beams here and there, and I lift my shield and walk forward slowly. A chandelier with a corpse on it is a ways below me, suspended from a long chain that this careful trek will bring me past; I am not confused as to what to do when I reach it. The white-clad warriors, as it turns out, have throwing knives, and are not afraid of these heights; when the first one engages me blade-to-blade, I'm genuinely afraid of falling. I don't, this time, but I get even more cautious.

A single swing from my sword breaks the chain when I reach it, and I hear the chandelier crash to the floor far below me; there is no question that the drop would be fatal. The next white-clad assassin to attack me tosses one throwing knife at me, runs across the rafters, then jumps to its death as it gets near me; I feel its souls flow into me after it hits the floor. This leaves one person left up here besides me, and somehow, I'm less afraid now that I've made it more than halfway, even though I know I should really be all the more careful at this point. The last warrior is more sensible about navigating the rafters, and at one point, I genuinely think I'm going to fall; somehow, I don't, and I manage to cut it down.

When I near the end of the rafters, marked by a ladder that will bring me back down to more solid footing, I pass by the top of a huge, elegant statue to my left, of a barefoot, large-breasted woman flanked by two knights. I'm not sure if this is significant or not. Down the ladder, a doorway blocked by white light is to my left, though I see a small stairwell ahead. I decide to leave the door for now and find out where the stairs go; the answer, as it turns out, is a balcony one level lower guarded by a single white-clad assassin, also known as nowhere. Not too annoyed, I go back up and traverse the white light, which fades behind me.

Now I'm outside again. A lever to my left indicates a contraption, but a bridge leads forward, and I take it. I'm now in a large tower open to the outside, and at the center of this is a spiral staircase surrounding a rotating metal wheel; I take the wheel's handle and push. In response, the entire tower then rotates counterclockwise and sinks. Before I can see what this did, a gargoyle attacks, but on the spiral stairs I slay it with ease; it leaves behind its shield and halberd, both of which are far inferior to anything I have. The bottom of the stairs now leads to a bridge back inside the building I just left, though I have no idea where they led before; I'm tempted, but climb back up the stairs without investigating the building for now. At the top, I find that what I've done is connect the bridge to nowhere from earlier to this tower, and on the other side, this tower to a bridge that leads to a vast staircase. The Fire Keeper said to go straight, so that's the way I need to go to get where I'm headed. Knowing this, I go back down the stairs to explore the building I left.

There are a _lot_ of white-robed figures down here, but I charge in without much concern. Getting them to attack me one at a time isn't a challenge for the most part, and when I fight a duo, and then a trio, I cut them down quickly. Their sabers are sharp, and the way they spin with one in each hand is difficult to fight - I'm almost out of Estus by the time I'm done - but ultimately, they all fall. A few corpses actually turn out to be down here, including the one from the chandelier I dropped; a set of black iron armor once worn by Black Iron Tarkus as well as the matching greatsword and greatshield is on one, the Great Magic Weapon sorcery (which is useless to me, as the spell cannot enchant dragon weapons) is on the one from the chandelier, and one of the white-clad assassins' swords from what could be the body of one of the people I killed (but I don't think so), are my treasures.

Apart from all that, at the far end of the room is a towering mural depicting what looks like ruins on a mountain. I approach it to examine it more closely. Standing at the base of it, it is truly mind-boggling how huge it is; I reach out a hand and place it upon the picture in wonder…and suddenly, something grabs my hand and pulls it through the painting. White lights and black tendrils of force surround me, and I'm slowly sucked into the picture, struggling but unable to fight; I tumble through, and everything goes black for a moment. The next thing I know, I'm standing on a rope bridge leading to a snow-covered mountain that resembles the one depicted by the mural.

There's no sign of the room I came from anywhere. It's cold here, and I'm not sure how real this place is. The bridge is in too much disrepair behind me for me to go anywhere but forward, and I cross to the mountain, where stone steps covered in snow lead up the side. After climbing a short distance, I find a body or two (it's hard to tell) impaled on a spike to the right of the steps. Not quite unnerved, I keep climbing, since there's nothing else I can do. Soon I reach the top, and find a bonfire, which I light; more impaled bodies surround another set of steps leading up to a building with a burning torch on the outside.

First, I use the souls I've gathered to strengthen myself; then I ask her what this is. She tells me that it's because of the peculiar doll I picked up in the Northern Undead Asylum, the doll that was the only comfort of an abomination with no place in the world - this is where she is now. How do I get out? Climb to the top, is all my love can tell me.

I stand. There's a sort of morbid beauty to this frozen place, the trees covered in snow. Up the stairs into a courtyard, I'm met with three ragged Hollows that go down easily. Some huge doors in front of me are closed, and probably locked; to my right is a path that is the only place I can go. Slowly, I proceed, my shield raised, the snow crunching under my boots with each step I take. There is morbid beauty, yes, but also something foreboding in the absolute stillness of this world.

Along the wall, I find some stairs leading up in the direction from which I came, which lead to more stairs; at the top of these stairs are a few ragged Hollows, one of which is shooting arrows at me. I notice an easy-to-miss passage to my left, but up a wider set of stairs is the ragged Hollow with a bow; I climb up to take it out, and find myself facing a creature that's ragged Hollow from the waist down and pile of bloated red bulges above that. Of course, I try to be cautious of this thing, and each time I slash it, it belches smoke at me that looks unpleasantly similar to the smoke the black amphibious things in the tree and sewer sprayed. The third slash kills it, but a burst of green slime spouts from it, and I'm instantly toxic; I eat a clump of blooming purple moss, leaving me with only two remaining, and with no immediately apparent way out of here, I'm concerned.

Up the stairs again, I find another bloated red thing, and this one spits fire at me. My drake sword keeps me from getting too badly hurt, but I wonder just how many other surprises this one breed of enemy can throw at me. I try to be even more careful fighting this one, and manage to dodge its spray when it dies. On the landing between the stairs the two bloated red things were waiting on and the stairs I came up to kill the one ragged Hollow is a single corpse bearing a small soulmass; I haven't seen these in a while.

I decide not to go to the top of the stairs just yet, instead checking out the narrow passageway I noticed earlier; I find more stairs, which leads to a couple more ragged Hollows and some more stairs. All these stairs shouldn't be surprising or even annoying, since I have to climb my way to the top of this place to get out, but annoyed I am just the same. The top of these stairs leads to one more ragged Hollow, then the roof of this building I've been climbing the outside of; there's nothing up here, but a crumbling edge of the roof conveniently marks a jump down to a tiny balcony with a corpse on it, on which I find a shriveled finger, somehow still slightly warm despite this frozen place, and with far too many knuckles to be human. What is this thing? I have no idea.

A doorway into the building behind me leads to a drop; I deliberate a moment before taking it. There are several wooden floors here connected by wooden stairs; at the top, I find an exit leading to the top of the stone stairs I passed up a minute ago. I go back in and climb down to see what else there is to find; the answer turns out to be two albino undead rats and a corpse bearing a large soulmass.

Now I go back up, and cross the stone bridge both paths led to. Soon, I'm getting shot at with arrows by a ragged Hollow; across, I go out to the small space it's standing on to kill it, and three more ragged Hollows climb over the low wall of the space up behind me. These, I cut down easily, but behind them are two more red bloated things, and though I quickly cut down the one that actually comes out after me while the other tries in vain to spit fire at me, I fail to evade its death spray, and am left toxic, with only one blooming clump of purple moss left after I heal myself. I have no means of getting anything else to heal myself of toxin; I decide to start using magic against these creatures, so I can kill them from a distance. When I go back inside to try this against the one that's spitting fire at me, however, two more appear, and the fire manages to hit me almost enough to kill me. It's only one other thing that comes out the door after me, though, and killing it with Great Soul Arrows does indeed prove to protect me from the toxic slime, if done right.

Killing the third fire-spitting thing from a distance nearly proves fatal, as it's impossible to time my spells so that I can still defend from the fire with my shield - it's not until after I kill this one, as well as the one up above before it gets a chance to try anything, that it occurs to me to use the Dragon Crest Shield. I swap it out after creeping into the room I've just fought for the right to enter, then resume exploring.

Several doors and stairs can be found in this room; I creep towards one, and a ragged Hollow drops down behind me from above, which I cut down easily. Up the stairs I picked brings me to a landing with a doorway; there's a stone bridge outside and to the right, a corpse bearing a small soulmass outside and to the left, and stairs up to where that one ragged Hollow dropped down from inside and to the right. I get the soulmass, then go back inside to climb the stairs and see what else is in the immediate vicinity before I go out; a ragged Hollow dangling from the outside edge of the parapet that comes after me is easily slaughtered.

These stairs lead to essentially nowhere; I backtrack to go out another doorway I saw, and find myself on a wooden balcony next to which is a corpse hanging by its ankles from a rope, which I cut it down, knowing the body is something I'll find later. Then, I go back up the other stairs to the stone bridge I passed up. The illusion of multiple paths is almost disorienting in this place.

Across the bridge is a doorway to a spiral staircase going up the inside of a crumbling tower, some spiral stairs going down the outside of the tower, and a balcony with no stairs to the right; the balcony leads to nowhere, and I decide to take the outside stairs first. This leads down to a wide bridge across nothingness flanked by two empty balconies; I examine the balcony to the left first, then the right, and when I'm on the right, something drops from a huge, not-blue mass at the other end of the bridge (which is noteworthy around here). The thing comes to life and starts crawling across the bridge - I think it might be another rotted dragon, like the one in drake valley. Knowing I'm not prepared to fight such a monster, I find some stairs and climb down them, and am almost immediately met with a harpy - a thin, female figure with a raven's head and wings for an upper body and bloody talons for feet. The first thing it does is jump up, wrap its legs around my neck, and start pecking at me; I barely survive. I manage to cut it down after that, even in this narrow stone passageway, but the pecking costs me the last of my Estus, and now I'm a walking dead man.

Down the passageway, I find a doorway, and the passage goes a little further before ending in a red brick wall; I swing with my sword, just in case, but the wall turns out to be real. Through the doorway, I find myself inside the tower I just climbed down the outside of - looking up, I can see the stairs I didn't take. At the bottom is a doorway walled off with white light, and also a set of heavy-looking doors that just might be a shortcut back to the bonfire; I run down the few stairs to try them, but they seem to be locked somehow. For a moment, it seems like there's nothing for it but to traverse the white light and hope for the best, but before I try it, I remember that I can go back up and climb the stairs I see above me, assuming the monster outside allows me to. I try that instead.

The monster makes me uneasy, and it spews a wave of poison once I get too close - poison that lasts long enough to wash over me briefly even as I retreat. That's that possibility nixed, so I go back down to the door of white light; I clasp my pendant, pray to her for luck, and traverse the wall, which dissipates behind me.

Now I'm in a small, empty room, but out a doorway and down some steps is a courtyard; a bunch of things are clustered around a statue with shields and spears, and though ravens are also perched on the statue, that doesn't make me feel better. A sense of danger from my pendant tells me that those things are not to be taken lightly, and that I'm probably better off trying to dodge the rotten dragon. I take a breath to brace myself, then run back up to try.

Fortunately, I do manage to evade the dragon's poison, and make it in. I can try to climb the stairs now, but remembering the harpy, I keep my shield raised and my steps slow. This doesn't help me; another harpy comes down from above, and though I try to dodge it, it grabs me and pecks me to death. Back at the bonfire, I wonder how I'll ever make it to the same place again, especially with only the one clump of blooming purple moss - I know I have no choice but to try, but I'm concerned.

An accidental jumping attack gets me toxified on the way out again, and I use the last clump of blooming purple moss I have. When I cut down the ragged Hollow shooting arrows from across the bridge, instead of trying to face four bloated red things, I jump down to a wooden floor, then through it to the ground floor of this building. Here, I find a bunch of albino undead rats, one of which manages to kill me. Still, it seems like a more plausible route than what I was trying before.

This time, I run past all the bloated red things, though the ragged Hollows on the way get quite a few good hits on me. I jump down to the area of albino undead rats, and this time, I kill the one that killed me before, and it gives me a Humanity sprite. This is good - if nothing else, I'll have a means of healing myself once I run out of Estus, if only one. Once I finally get up and out of this place, I take a couple of jumps and find myself in the middle of a set of stone stairs. I go up, knowing the exit is that way; a ragged Hollow guards a ladder, but that's not a problem. At the top, unfortunately, are two red bloated things, and though I try once I climb back down, I'm soon toxified. There's no way I can survive this, so I start running, ignoring foes I pass; I find a corpse bearing a huge soulmass and one bearing an odd chestnut on the way, and before long, I somehow find myself at the spiral stairs where the harpy killed me a while ago. This time, another one cuts me down, but that's okay, I was dead anyway.

Again, I try to run through. Right now, I just need to get out of here - someday, I'll return and exact revenge on everything that has challenged me, but that's not today. When I'm at the top of the first building, I try to get a good look around. The spiral staircase I was trying to climb, which I can see rising into the air in the distance, doesn't appear to lead anywhere at all, and though I continue looking, searching for some other place I can jump down to, I find nothing; the jump I take brings me back to where I was. A bloated red thing I baited earlier so I could try to dodge it finds me, and at last, I manage a move that quickly gets it killed without the toxic death spray touching me - a small victory in a world of defeat.

Back up top, I take the alternate path I found again. Another albino rat gives me a Humanity sprite on the way, which is nice but not as helpful as something to combat toxin might be. I try going down the stairs before going up to the ladder where I got toxified last time; this leads to a room with tables and benches containing two more albino rats and a treasure chest holding a full set of white garments like the ones the warriors outside of this world were wearing. A door on the other side of the room leads to an empty, enclosed courtyard, so I then climb back up.

At the top of the ladder, a bloated red thing starts to climb down the ladder after me, so I drop; this, apparently, is enough for it to change its mind, as I wait for it but it never comes. I climb up the ladder again, and instead of trying to get on the ladder, I get high enough for it to try swinging at me, causing it to fall to its death - possibly the absolute safest way to get rid of these things. The path cleared, I go back through, a bit more cautious but still retracing my steps, hoping to recover the power I lost; I succeed, then jump off the balcony to the right of the doorway going into the tower, hoping to find some other passage. I kill a ragged Hollow that follows me and find a corpse carrying a large soulmass, but then discover I've backed myself into an area with no escape. My best chance is to jump down from one of the edges, though I'm not sure it's safe to do so; I cast Fall Control and jump. This, I find, actually leads me back to where I was earlier, just before the ladder I was toxified at. Forward is the only direction I can go, and I decide to try on that area past the doorway that was walled off by white light - I won't engage the monsters there, but maybe I can find something resembling an exit, or at least a shortcut, around the outside of the courtyard.

It's only as I make my way to the tower this time that I realize what I've done: follow a secondary path to the exact same place that that first, harder path led me to. A harpy, a Hollow, and a red thing meet me when I descend the stairs past the rotten dragon; I'm certain of death a couple of times, especially when the harpy, which slipped and fell before the other two made it up the stairs, comes in and blocks a spell meant for the red thing, but somehow I make it out alive and well. When I get to the courtyard, I run around the left side of the statue on a pure guess, and across the space, I find the doors that, when opened, lead directly back to the bonfire, which I waste no time in running to so that I can strengthen myself with the souls I've gathered.

Now I have a shortcut to the place that is the furthest I've managed to get here. I heed her warning and make no plans to fight the things clustered around the statue. Now that I know that those spiral stairs don't lead to a way out, all I can do is take a shot in the dark and hope; so, instead, I stand and go through the doors I just opened, killing the ragged Hollows on the way.

This time, I go left - what would have been to the right had I taken that side coming the other way - and find some stairs. Up them, I find a balcony with a corpse carrying a medium-sized soulmass, four ragged Hollows that try to ambush me, and another rope holding up a corpse that I cut down, though I have no real plans to try to find it, at least not while I'm here this time. All I want is to get back to Anor Londo, but when I take the only other path given me up here, I find a path to a ladder that goes down into what looks like a sewer. I don't want to go down, I want to go up, but…I wonder if, maybe, this place will lead me up to an exit? I have no idea, so I decide I might as well try it. Down here, spotlights make me wary, and it's just as well, because a spike wheel skeleton comes at me from the right; I try to cut it down, and succeed, when another one gets to me from behind, and I die.

Back at the bonfire again, I start to wonder if maybe the rotting dragon guards the exit. No, she tells me, the easiest way is by activating a contraption down in the sewers where I just died - there's a wheel that can be turned, that will open the locked doors I went up against earlier. Where was this information earlier? Sheepishly, she tells me she forgot. With a sigh, I stand up and run to do as she says. Down in the sewers, I ignore the spiked wheels, running instead straight to the lever and turning it, during which I cannot be harmed; I see a vision of the statue in the courtyard turning around, and the doors opening. The moment the vision is over, I'm mauled to death by the spike wheel skeletons, but I've done what I need to do.

Not caring about the death spot I left in the sewers, I run to the doors and through them. Ragged Hollows try to stop me on the way across a long bridge; I kill them. A black knight also tries to stop me, but I dodge around it and run - not now, not today. I pass through a door walled off by white light, and find myself face-to-face with a large woman in a flowing white dress of what could either be fur or feathers, barefoot and carrying an enormous scythe. She seems important to this place, and I approach her without attacking.

"Who art thou?" she asks. "One of us, thou art not. If thou hast misstepped into this world, plunge down from the plank and hurry home. If thou seekest I, thine desires shall be requited not."

I stare at her for a moment. "I am Deimos of Astora, Chosen Undead," I tell her. "I misstepped here this time, and so I shall leave you; one day, however, I will return, and I promise you, I will destroy everything here."

"Thou must returneth whence thou came," is all she says, her voice sad. "This land is peaceful, its inhabitants kind, but thou dost not belong. I beg of thee, plunge down from the plank, and hurry home."

"This time," I say. "Next time, I will destroy you."

With that, I walk past her; as I do, I notice that she has a tail, white and furry as the dress she wears. Past her, some stairs lead up to a stone plank that seems to look out over a bottomless abyss. A slight nudge urges me forward as the pendant warms against my chest, and, my fears quelled, I jump.

I fall…fall…

…and find myself standing back in front of the painting.

Out of nowhere, Homeward Bone appears in my hand, and I tuck it away. I switch my Dragon Crest Shield out with my Crest Shield, then turn around and face the many white-clad warriors here; I kill one, and from it, I gain a humanity. When a throwing knife then hits me in the back, I decide to simply run outside, up the stairs, across the bridge, to the lift, and return to the bonfire. Once there, I use the humanity I just got to restore my body.

The fire, the city, are both so warm compared to that frozen mountain. Someday, I will go back there, but right now, I'm just glad to be in the real world again. I think of all the things I saw and gathered there, and it occurs to me to absorb all the soulmasses I collected; all together, they provide just enough for me to strengthen myself a bit further. Those two Humanity sprites, as well, are fortunate things to have.

I am so tired. The snow, and the water down in the sewer, has washed some of the poisonous mud off my boots. One day, I'll go back there. Soon, I'll go forward and seek whatever it is I've come to Anor Londo for. Right now, I lie down and sleep.


	27. Chapter 26

I rise. It is time.

As the Fire Keeper instructed me, I leave the room and walk straight forward, taking the lift to the bridge - which I have to wait for, as it drops just before I reach it. The golden sun almost burns my eyes; such warmth and brightness, after a frozen mountain trapped in the night. When I begin to descend, I decide to practice jumping back; I misjudge how much room I have, however, and fall to my death.

Yes. The Great Lord-to-be.

Embarrassed, I restore my body with one of the Humanity sprites I found, then go back out again; I go straight forward this time, down the lift and across the bridges to the building beyond. I pass a lever to my left, then find myself at the base of an enormous staircase leading up - so enormous, in fact, that it's really three staircases in a row, the ones to either side of the middle made up of half-sized steps. At the top is a humongous pair of doors flanked by two giant armor knights; the doors are so wide that I could easily walk past both of the knights if the doors were open.

The left knight notices me first. It takes a couple of swings at me with its halberd, and I manage to get right behind its shield so that I'm riding its back as it straightens up. I slash a few times with my sword - one too many times, as it begins slamming its shield down on me, twice in a row before I can even do anything. Trying to regroup, I hurry back down the stairs, and I see that the other knight has noticed me, spurring me to retreat further. After I'm a short ways down the left-hand staircase, the second one backs off, and I'm left with the one, slashing at its shins from below. Soon, it falls; I take a swig of Estus, then move on to the second knight. This one prefers to thrust its halberd at me, and at one point gets a full-on stab. Shortly after that, on the stairs, I discover the proper pattern for slashing at its feet, and it doesn't get a chance to hurt me again.

With the guards out of the way, I take a closer look around. Up a rotunda of stairs, the enormous metal doors are patterned with images I can't quite make out, and locked. To the left, I find an ornate wrought iron fence with a small barred door in it, which is locked from the other side. That leaves me only with the ability to go right. The grate is the same on this side, but not only is the small door on it open, the entire gate has been swung out from the wall, tucked into a little corner between the wall and the outside of the building. Through here and down some stairs, there's a vast open space with buttresses to the left that I would never be able jump, followed by a smaller rotunda of stairs leading up to a smaller metal door that is thoroughly sealed as far as I can tell. Back the way I came, some stairs lead downwards, and at the bottom are a couple of the creatures that brought me here to Anor Londo. She spares me the trouble of wondering by telling me that these ones will indeed hurt me; I take out my tin catalyst and blast the nearer one with a Great Soul Arrow.

My spell doesn't do much damage, and it comes up the stairs after me. It has an odd white spear like a crab's claw on a stick, which it thrusts around wildly, sometimes jumping up into the air to strike downwards. A few slashes from my sword defeat it. With one down, I don't bother using magic on the other creature at the bottom of the stairs, I just charge down at it. It's able to strike me quite effectively even through my shield; I back up some and take a swig from my Estus Flask, and that's when I notice that a third pale-pink demon has noticed me. Two against one is a slaughter; I can hardly defend myself for a few seconds.

Back at the bonfire, I rise, Hollow, but I won't waste my last Humanity sprite now that I know it only gets more difficult up ahead. Half-alive, I run back, killing both armor knights on the way without a scratch.

I'm more careful with the pink bat-winged demons this time - magic may not harm them much, but it _is_ a good way to lure them up to me one at a time. After I shoot the first one, though, instead of coming after me, it throws something at me that turns out to be a bolt charged with lightning; I back up, and after a couple more throws, it gives up and comes for me. The blows from its weapon are powerful, but my sword moves a bit faster, and knocks it off-balance when it strikes (though I misjudge my distance from it often, costing me). Once I defeat the first, I creep to about halfway down the stairs and shoot the second, which is perched right on the edge of the building; the force from the magic alone knocks it off the edge, and it falls to its death. How creatures that can obviously fly might fall to their deaths, I do not know, but I won't question it.

Mindful of the third creature that snuck up on me last time, I take my sword back out, move to the far right-hand banister of the stairs, and slowly proceed to the bottom. There's nothing to the right side of the stairs, but as I walk around to the other side, I notice the third creature. This one gets a few good hits on me, as I'm trying to be more mindful of how far away such creatures actually are compared to my sword, but a drink of Estus sustains me; I strike it once, twice, and it falls to its doom.

Where the third creature was, I search for something, but find only a buttress leading down to a wall. There's another buttress, further out from the stairs, and it too leads down, this one to another building that is open to the outside. Ornate spikes like handrails line either side, so it might have been intended to be traversed, but I have my doubts. Still, it's my only option; I raise my shield and descend.

I am not blind to the two bat demons hiding behind the pillars on either side of me once I reach the next building, though they wait as though to ambush me even after I notice them. Two of these against the one of me doesn't seem like good odds, but she tells me to run to the center of the room, then run back out onto the beam that I'd crossed to get here. Trusting her, I do so, and though I do get hit in the back once as I retreat, I soon see what she meant: The buttress is just barely too narrow for even a single bat demon to climb. This leaves a very tight bottleneck, and as one tries and fails to squeeze its way after me, the one behind tries to make jump attacks that ultimately lead to it falling off the edge to its death. The remaining bat demon is quite nimble and dodges me very strategically; at one point, I'm certain I'm dead, but then it stops for a moment for some reason, giving me time to restore myself. Once I manage to start hitting it, I don't stop, and after three slashes, it falls.

A clinking sound, like an arrow against stone, tells me I'm still far from safe. As I start to run to a pillar, a veritable _javelin_ comes flying through the air and embeds itself in the floor to my left. I take refuge behind the pillar I was headed for, brace myself, then raise my shield and run out onto the buttress that is my only means of progression - why climbing these turned out to be so necessary in this city, I'll never know.

The arrows that are being shot at me from either side are enormous. By running, I avoid getting hit, but only just barely - they get stopped by the almost-handrails to either side of the beam I'm climbing before they hit me. At the top, I reach a small ledge that goes around a square tower; here, I'm safe from the arrows for a moment, and I pause. The sound of the arrows eventually stops, not that I take that as a comfort. After a moment, I go out again, carefully navigating the right-hand side of the tower's ledge.

Around the other side, I reach another buttress, which I climb without giving myself time for second thoughts. I avoid getting struck by the spear-arrows as I climb, but at the top, I find myself on another narrow ledge, with one archer to either side of me - they look like the black knights I've seen in Lordran, except that they're silver. I try to go for the one to my right; two javelins skewer me from behind, and I barely survive them. The silver knight I've targeted has more than just its bow to use against me, though, and I don't even see what it hits me with that kills me.

Okay, I know my way to a certain point. Through the bonfire, she tells me that she too had no end of trouble with these archers; what I was doing was the best thing I can do, apparently, it just takes some luck for it to work. With this in mind, I go out again. A couple of bat demons give me a little bit of trouble along the way - and at one point, I think something hit me without me even noticing - but it only takes two drinks of Estus to get me back to where I was before. I try to go faster this time, and recover my death spot on the way; I manage that much, and only one javelin hits me from behind this time, but the knight I'm aiming for keeps shooting arrows at me, and it takes the same amount of time for me to recover from the distance I get knocked back for it to shoot another. The third arrow hits me full-on, and I fall to my death. Maybe I'll try going for the one on my left.

This time, the journey back is a bit more difficult - it takes three swallows of Estus to have me at full health for the archers - and I'm starting to think that I don't really like Anor Londo. I go left this time, and though I get hit by three javelins on the way, for a moment, it seems like I'll be able to face off against this silver knight (which is actually standing on another buttress) fairly, since there's a tower between me and the other one; but I get no such luck, and the other one hits me just as I'm about to take a swig of Estus, killing me. It does seem like this is a better strategy, though.

An accidental jumping attack gets me nearly smashed to death by an armor knight, and the third of the bat demons jumps back and back to avoid me and falls to its death; apart from that, nothing of note happens this time. During the later parts, I notice that the bat demons' hands and lower arms are dyed red - possibly from blood? I wonder what these things do when they aren't standing in one place waiting for a chance to get in my way…I have more than 30,000 souls when I recover, but I die soon after, knocked to my death by an arrow from the further knight. The knight I was after falls to its death a little while after me, but that doesn't help me. As I rise beside the bonfire again, I'm starting to wonder if maybe I should go back to my original strategy.

One of the last two bat demons, instead of charging to its death, tries throwing lightning spears at me for a good while; I'm patient, and eventually it gives up and falls, leaving me with the last one, which doesn't hurt me. I have to use four drinks of Estus to get to full health here, and I'm not liking my odds. Perhaps I should be a bit more aggressive - I have to go to the left anyway, to recover my death spot, so maybe I should just be quicker in my assault. I try this, but I go too fast to really register my surroundings very thoroughly, and shortly after I recover, I jump to my death of my own accord.

Is this even possible? Part of me wants to go back to Lordran for a Ring of Sacrifice from Oswald, then come back up here again, to be able to make use of the souls I've been losing. After a moment's deliberation, I decide to do so - the risk isn't much higher than just trying to go forward again. I return to the tower where I was dropped off, and find a bat demon waiting; It does not attack me.

"Hello?" I ask it.

It stands up and makes a calling growl, and two more bat demons come and grab me by the arms. They fly me back down to Sen's Fortress, and the golden city is gone. I can still see the little ring of light that will call them to take me back, though, so no harm done. There's an odd sort of delight in slaughtering a crossbow-wielding Hollow on the way down; the snake man on the narrow ledge nearly kills me, but I persevere. I don't bother resting at the bonfire on the way to the top of the church - it would only revive the snake men, which I don't need. Slaughtering Hollows in the parish is very gratifying, but it's not until after I kill all of the ones in my way that I remember that I need souls to buy a ring; I proceed anyway, if only to find out how many I need to buy one.

"Greetings," Oswald says when I approach. "Well…I did'st not expect to find thee Hollow."

I say nothing in response to this, and discover that I need 5,000 souls for a ring; I have more than half of this already, so I leave to kill some more Hollows for what I need.

"Thou art welcome anytime," he says as always as I leave. "It is only human to commit a sin…" His creepy laughter echoes in the bell tower as I turn and walk away. I think he really enjoys saying that, though I'm getting tired of it.

As I descend, I find another ragged Hollow, just like last time; I'm still not sure where it comes from. I then go down to the Firelink Shrine to feed some of my junk to Frampt. He doesn't seem to know or care that I've reached Anor Londo, saying only, "I am pleased to see you well. Is it something urgent?" I let it go. Feeding him everything I can spare gets me to just over 4,000 souls, but it's as I'm digging through my things, trying to find junk to feed him, that I discover the Rare Ring of Sacrifice I found earlier, which I'd completely forgotten about. Oh well, no harm done - I'm 4,000 souls richer for the journey.

Frampt bids me farewell, and, still slightly embarrassed, I climb back up. I don't put on the Rare Ring of Sacrifice just yet - I have to trust that I'll get back to my death spot without dying, since I only have the one. It crosses my mind that maybe I should get a regular Ring of Sacrifice anyway; after a minute's deliberation, I decide to do it - just in case, since there are more than 35,000 souls on the line. Nine hundred souls come from the handful of nearby Hollows, and one of them drops some gauntlets I can feed to Frampt for another hundred souls, so I go back down, quickly toss the primordial serpent the gloves, then go up again. I do glance at Petrus as I pass, but only glance - I have more important worries. A wrong turn on the way back to the lift brings me to a corpse carrying six firebombs; I take them, a bit surprised, then proceed.

Oswald has nothing new to say to me, so I buy a Ring of Sacrifice from him and go. Right away, I put it on, taking off the Ring of Steel Protection I've been wearing - if I end up wasting a ring, it'll be the less useful one, so that I'll still have the rarer one if nothing goes awry. I've gained twenty-six souls for my journey as well as the ring - next to nothing, but better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, as her mother used to say. However, once I return to Sen's Fortress, I discover that the snake men somehow revived, even though I didn't use any bonfires; I'm not ready for this, and though I try to fight them, they eventually kill me. The Ring of Sacrifice breaks, and I'm back at the bonfire in Anor Londo. Still, I have the ring I didn't know about, and my old death spot should still be where it was; I put on the Rare Ring of Sacrifice to be safe, then go out and try to climb up the castle again.

I get to the place with the archers all right. My priority is to recover my death spot, yes, but I'm still going to try to get past them. One javelin from behind, another from the front, and I quickly fall to my death, failing again. Still, I do manage to recover, with well over 41,000 souls to show for it when I wake up. The ring breaks, and I re-equip my Ring of Steel Protection, then sit down at the fire and see what I can do.

I'm 1,060 souls short of being able to reinforce myself twice over - a single armor knight gives more souls than that, so I decide to go kill one for the souls, then return, just to be able to feel all the strength flow into me at once. I get a little impatient with the armor knight I lure out from the room that goes back towards the exit, but I still manage to kill it.

After I use the souls I've gathered, I stand, and wonder what it is I should be doing. The archers won't be any easier to pass now than they were before…but as I think this, I remember the section of the Darkroot Garden through the sealed door that I've yet to try out. Being able to fight enemies in a place with more room to maneuver can't be any harder than trying to fight the silver archer knights, surely; I decide to go back. Up at the tower, the bat demon is still waiting to take me away.

The crossbow-wielding Hollow gives me a large shard of titanite as I descend the fortress. I deliberate taking on the two headless demons in the tar pit for a good couple of minutes, eventually deciding to try it, but retreat if it proves too difficult; I cast Fall Control and drop down, swapping out my Ring of Steel Protection for the rusted iron ring. One swing from the first headless demon confirms that it's no use, so I leave. Using the booby trap near the entrance to the fortress makes fighting the two snake men easier; then, I'm back at the bonfire above Andre's forge.

Hearing the smithing below me reminds me that I have a lot of kinds of titanite on me, and that I haven't repaired my equipment in a while, either. On the way to the forest, I stop to talk to him; he is, as always, happy to forge for me.

First, I repair everything I have, then check for armor upgrades. Between the large shards of titanite I've gathered, the titanite chunks, and that one titanite slab, I have enough titanite and souls to bring my gauntlets to their maximum strength; I do so. I'm also able to use the one chunk of twinkling titanite to reinforce my body armor. My equipment strengthened, I thank Andre, we exchange farewells, and I proceed.

The lush, humid forest is cool and soothing after the extremes of temperature and environment I've been through. Smiting plant creatures with the magic from my drake sword, watching them get blasted away, is fun; splashing through the cool, clear puddles, I remember the lake down below, and decide to go wash off. Blasting through the crystal golems with the power of my drake sword is fun, too - three smiting blows destroy them, and the shock wave can reach them from above them at the top of a cliff and even go through more than one without losing strength. I'm getting used to the special power of this sword all of a sudden, and it's nice. However, doing this turns out to wear out the sword very quickly, as it's falling apart before I've even struck the third golem. It's still strong enough to fight the monsters with, though, and afterwards, I use my repair powder, then carry on. Repair powder is also nice.

Washing off is nice, too. I jump into the lake, and the cool, clean water is so refreshing. The poison mud has crusted onto my boots, so it takes a lot of splashing around to wash them off, but I do. The rusted iron ring I'm still wearing also allows me to wade through the water without being slowed down, which I didn't expect. Once my armor's all clean, I strip down to bathe. Even Hollowed, the cool water feels good against my charred, withered flesh. For a little while, I just stand under a waterfall, feeling all the grime wash away.

Then, after a while, I run back up, dirt and twigs and bits of leaves sticking to my bare feet - wearing soaked armor is very unpleasant, so I don't. It's kind of odd to hear the thumping of my feet against the ground for once - normally, the jingling or clanking of my armor marks the sound of my movement. After I splash through the first puddle up top, washing my feet off, I debate putting my armor back on for the plant monsters ahead. Remembering that the entire ground ahead is dotted with puddles, I decide not to; I simply draw my sword and shield. The plant monsters fall quickly before my sword; one gives me a clump of bloodred moss, the other a clump of purple moss.

Being clean now, and having moved through the world without the jingle of battlewear reminding me of the constant peril of my undeath, I decide to use the last of my Humanity sprites to restore myself - I am a human, and I will look like and be one. The bonfire's warmth washes over me, drying me off thoroughly; the humanity in my chest expands as I close my eyes and put a hand over the fire, filling and restoring my flesh. I stand, put my wet armor back on, then sit down again to let the bonfire dry the cloth and metal; steam pours off of me, and I'm ready to face what lies beyond the door.

Rejuvenated, I rise, draw my sword and shield, and descend the few stone steps into the forest; I know that Undead who are not Hollow are here, and I'm ready. The half-invisible knight tries to sneak up on me, but I see him coming; the spellcaster follows. Then the knight's sword hits me, and I hit him, and I realize this won't be as easy as I thought. I end up trying to back up, hoping to get both Undead in front of me; they, too, circle me, and it becomes a very dangerous dance. Every time I try to restore myself with Estus, the knight just hits me again, making it almost pointless; I back up the stairs through the door, and the knight follows me, though the sorcerer does not. Up here, one-on-one, I'm able to overpower him; the rush of souls I get as a reward is more than worth it.

When I go back out to fight the sorcerer, I only have five mouthfuls of Estus left. He waits for me when I approach him, as though he won't attack unless I do first; I do, and he goes down much more easily. Another Undead gives away his position through the trees, though he too is half-invisible; he goes down about as easily as the sorcerer, though his saber does make a few cuts that could have been worrisome.

Not knowing how many more there might be, I proceed slowly, my shield raised, watchful for movement. I reach an open space before a cliff with no incidents. From here, I think I can make out a figure through the fog; I approach cautiously. When I notice what might be another figure through the trees, an Undead with an axe comes at me; the fight is neither difficult nor easy, and I win. After this, though, I only have three more swallows of Estus with which to heal myself; I need to be more careful.

The figure I thought I saw through the trees does indeed prove to be an Undead once I get close enough - a cleric knight, wielding a mace. He tries to heal himself with a Miracle twice, succeeding at one point; but in the end, I take him down without a scratch.

By now, I've reached some mossy ruins with a doorway that still stands, but I want to hunt around for other Undead first, so I go back into the trees. It's as I do this that I notice the cliff to the other side of the area; I've almost explored all of it. Another open ledge, with a rock and a fallen log covered in moss, limits where I can go. Moments later, a sudden arrow through the trees tells me that I have more opposition. I feel my eyes narrow. An archer. Not a crossbow wielder, this one. He's half invisible, as is the knight that turns out to be right beside him. Annoyed, I retreat, working to bait the knight to come to me somewhere the archer can't hit me - I have to get him to come out from behind the fallen log I noticed earlier without putting myself in the archer's range. It's the same as the knight from before; knowing his attack patterns a bit better, I manage to take him down. Now I only have two swigs of Estus left.

When I find the archer again, he can't seem to decide whether he wants to use his bow or a sword against me - he keeps swapping them, over and over, while I stand right in front of him. After a minute, I take it for what it is and slash at him once, twice; he falls off a short ledge, and I follow. A few more slashes, and he's down - a complete slaughter; I get 5,000 souls for killing him, as well as a Twin Humanities and the black bow and hat of the hero Pharis, whose archery was said to be on par with that of Hawkeye Gough, one of the four knights of Lord Gwyn. Huh. So that's who he was. A big name like that shouldn't have gone down so easily. But it makes me feel just that much better about the silver knight archers in Anor Londo. The bow itself is slightly weaker than my longbow, but has more of a range, and I am capable of wielding it; maybe I can actually try to use this against the knights.

I realize now that I've come to where I started running through before. That should be all the Undead - I'll go through the middle of the area now that I've gone around the edges, just in case, but I think that's all of them. It turns out that I'm correct, which leaves me with only the crumbling building I noticed earlier - which will presumably lead me to the place where I saw the big black felines before, since there's a bridge crossing the chasm that I presume is made by the same river. As I step inside the small building, however, I notice a fat white feline creature sitting in a small window above my head. It doesn't attack me, and something tells me to treat it like a person; I put away my weapons and remove my helm.

"Hello?" I call to the cat.

The cat looks at me. "Is it not so that thou art new?" she asks. "Thou fared well to find me. But cometh thee not for the grave of Sir Artorias? My advice true, forget this! The legend of Artorias art none but a fabrication…Traversing the dark? Hmph! 'Tis but a fairy tale. Have thine own respect, go not yonder knocking for nothing, I say!"

She stops, looking at me meaningfully. I blink, confused; I've forgotten the question. "I…would seek the grave of Sir Artorias, yes," I tell her at last - I'm not surprised by the suggestion that it's here, since his crest opened the door and his ring was on a corpse, and if it is here, I would like to see it.

"Well indeed, thou art a strange one!" she purrs. "Nevertheless, I feel some liking for thee. I'm Alvina of the Darkroot Wood. I command a clan of hunters who track down defilers of the forest graves. What dost thou say? Wilt thou not join us? Oh yes, I believe we would suit thee well."

I hesitate a moment. "Sure, why not?" I answer at last.

"I am _very_ glad," she tells me, her tone almost disturbing. "And now, thou art one of us! Let us establish a Covenant."

A Covenant? I abandoned the Way of White a while ago, and I don't belong to any right now…Why not? If I want to do something else, I can always return to Oswald later. I hold out my hands, and a glow envelops me.

"And here, taketh this ring," Alvina says, handing me a gold ring set with a pearl. "If thou weareth that ring, it allows for thine summoning," she explains. "If mine senses reveal intruders, then I will summon thee. Fend them off sir, I beseech only this. I shall summon others, who will by their honor work tirelessly with thee. Thou shalt receive great reward, and whatsoever ye shall pillage will be thine own. A true agreement, not so? But thou must heed the golden rule…The clan is thine own family. To thine kinsmen forever stay true. Dare'st not in any attempt to double-cross. Have no doubt, such wretchedness, never will we tolerate."

"Okay," I say slowly, wondering if that means I'm not allowed to go looking for the grave she mentioned.

She nods in farewell, and I turn to go, re-equipping myself as I do. A small stone bridge leads out the other side of the building, and I take it into another ruined place, stone steps leading down to the ground, another forest. For a minute, I pause, wondering what might be ahead of me. Then, through the mist, I can just barely make out what looks like two of those small mushroom people from inside that enormous tree; I go charging after them. Where there are small mushroom people, however, there are also big ones, and chasing after and killing one of the little ones puts a big one on me. The big ones, like before, are tanks - my sword does a lot of damage, but very little compared to how much it can take, and a single punch nearly kills me even with my shield up. I dance around it, learning its attack patterns, taking a swing only when I feel confident; eventually, it falls. When I search its body, I find a gold pine resin.

Some of the little mushroom people are running around, and I go chasing after every one I see. Every now and then, they give a death sound exactly like the cry of a loon; one or two of them also drop more gold pine resin. Standing still in the forest brings more and more to me, one or two at a time, and I kill them all before I go back for the other large mushroom person waiting in the puddle where I found the first one. It takes a little while, but once I'm sure it's just me and the big thing, I carefully go in to take it on.

As I step into the water, I notice that what I mistook for a log or the head of a small mushroom is actually a mostly-submerged treasure chest. That explains the presence of the mushrooms, but with one swig of Estus left, I'm not sure how confident I can be that I'll get to see what's inside anytime soon. I alert the large mushroom and start fighting, being extra-cautious; my shield actually manages to take the full force of a punch twice without me taking a scratch, for which I'm grateful. During the fight, one of the small mushrooms comes trotting past, and I wonder where they're all coming from, whether they just appear as long as there are big ones. It leaves us be, though, for me to go chasing after later. The big mushroom falls, and gives me another gold pine resin. After it's dead, I end up finding, not one, but two more small mushrooms on my way back to the submerged chest; I am very confused about where these mushroom people come from. For my reward, the chest contains a big, blue-green ember. There is magic in it, powerful magic, and I look forward to showing it to Andre. For now, though, I have the rest of the forest to explore.

Before too long, I find the two black feline creatures I saw long ago - sure enough, this is on that side of the river. The only other thing I can find is a long, narrow, crumbling stone bridge that leads to a brilliant white glow; I want to see what's there, but whatever it is, I should earn the right first and kill the black feline things. They do look like Alvina, and I hope killing them won't turn her - and her clan - against me.

I return to the ledge from which I can see one of the creatures prowling. Remembering what happened the last time I got too close, I'm wary of giving it a straight path to me; I walk along the ledge a short ways, then cast a Great Soul Arrow just to see what will happen. This alerts the beast, and it comes rolling towards me, ramming up against the bottom of the hill. From here, I manage to get three Great Soul Arrow shots on it, but it backs away, and soon, it's out of range. When it returns to its spot, I try casting magic again - I try Cast Light, to see if that will attract its attention, but it does not, only a magic missile of some sort will. Triggering the beast again allows me to get five shots on it, leaving me with nine left to use; it's weakening, but I don't know how effective this is going to be. The third time I try it, my activities catch the attention of the other black monster I saw, as well as a third one I didn't see. Soon, the trio are waiting in a little cluster together, and I don't know what to do. I try casting another arrow to no effect, and for a moment, I'm worried. A second one attracts the one I've been fighting, though, and I drop down on it with my sword; it roars and disintegrates. Will it respawn after I use a bonfire, I wonder? Even she isn't sure.

Now I have two black feline creatures to fight, and one Great Soul Arrow to cast. They _are_ standing under another ledge, though, so I can't help but wonder if maybe I can sneak around and get a dropping attack on them. For the best possible results, I cast Hidden Body before I start moving again. Along the way, I find a corpse that bears a large soulmass. My theory about being able to climb up the other ledge, however, proves false - there is no means of getting up there. The spell wears off, and I cast it again before braving the woods to see what I can do against the remaining beasts. I hug the edge of the ledge, moving slowly. Even though I'm technically hidden from sight, the moment the spell wears off, the beasts both notice me. Neither of them try rolling, though - I guess I'm too close for that. Instead, they both start attacking me with their sharp teeth. I fight my best, and come very close to killing one, but ultimately, their double-teaming overwhelms me, and I fall.

That was a lot of souls I left behind - enough to use, actually - so I will go back. I'm not looking forward to fighting my way through the Undead again, though…it's kind of risky. Also, I'm Hollow again. When I approach the sorcerer, however, he doesn't acknowledge me. It takes me a minute before I figure out that these Undead must be other members of the Forest Hunter Covenant - now that I'm one of them, they won't attack me. Convenient!

When I reach Alvina's hideout, I find a warrior in eastern garb and carrying a curved sword longer than he is tall standing just outside. I approach him, certain he won't hurt me. "Greetings," I say; "I am Deimos of Astora."

"I've heard all about you," he says, and I assume he's smiling beneath his helm. "I'm Shiva of the East, captain of the brigade. Let's teach you the clan basics now, as there is no time to chat in the midst of fighting. Except there's little in the form of rules, you hear? Fight and hunt as you like. Whoever's fastest gets the prey. That's the way we do it. Only…Don't forget what Alvina said. Traitors aren't given a second chance, for any reason. That's about it, then. Don't worry, it's a good old time, isn't it? Great to have you with us. Good hunting to you."

"And to you," I say hesitantly.

"Don't worry, now," he tells me. "You'll be called in soon enough. Hunters with patience score the best kills."

With a nod, I go. Across the bridge, I don't bother angering the big mushroom people, and though the small ones make me a bit nervous, they avoid me. I try to hit one of the black felines earlier on this time, but this only attracts a second one's attention. My method of luring them over with Great Soul Arrows works, but it attracts both of them at once; I try shooting at both of them as they come, and I soon run out of castings, so jump down to try to fight them with my sword. One bite from each of them, and I know I'm in danger, so I run to my death spot before I can die, then turn back, shield up. The fight seems to start going well enough, but when I take a chance to try and drink from my Estus Flask, I'm killed.

Back at the bonfire, it occurs to me to swap out the rusted iron ring for the Darkmoon Seance Ring, and equip normal Soul Arrows to lure the beasts without wasting a powerful spell. I do this, and go out with that plan in mind. On the way past Shiva, however, I notice a figure behind him that seems to disappear as I draw close. I get a bit closer, and finally find a half-invisible Undead that I don't recognize from my fighting them before.

"Hello?" I ask.

He acknowledges me, but says nothing.

Confused, I jog over to Shiva. "Do you know who that is?" I ask.

"Ah, did you see that one? Good eyes," he comments. "He's one of the clan. From the East, like myself. Always slinking in the shadows, but he's a tough one. You'll see what I mean." He chuckles.

Again, I nod my farewell and run out to seek the black cats, my new idea at the forefront of my mind. When I get there, I notice a small mushroom trotting along through the felines' territory; I wonder at it, but let it be. The first cat is alerted to my presence, but goes the wrong way; when I try to catch its attention, a second one notices me, too. It'll be just like last time.

I cast a Soul Arrow, then quickly switch spells. Both beasts roll at me at the same time; I pick one and start firing. Five shots are the maximum I can get with the way they move. The second time repeats the pattern. Too eager, I don't wait long enough the third time, and I only alert the one I'm not aiming for; when I get the other one over, I only have time to shoot it once. Then, the fourth time, I manage to kill one, with five castings of Great Soul Arrow left; I don't feel too worried about fighting a single cat, but I use the method to get all the uses out of the magic that I can. I accidentally use Cast Light once, then lure it over; I get four hits on it this time, so the last time, I cast the last Great Soul Arrow, then jump down on it with my drake sword. Even after that, it's still a bit of a fight, but I recover my death spot and kill it.

There's a third cat somewhere, I remember, but I don't see it right now. Fighting it one-on-one won't be _too_ difficult, provided I don't get rolled on. I proceed with caution, but the cat doesn't come. Only then does it occur to me that I already killed one, and that maybe these things don't get revived when a bonfire is activated.

That leaves me triumphant. I return to the bonfire to use the souls I've gathered, and just because I'm feeling cocky, I use the Twin Humanities to restore my Hollowed body. Then I trade my Darkmoon Seance Ring for my Cloranthy Ring - the use of the souls means I get to keep the ability to have five spells on standby - and run out to see what's across that bridge I noticed. When I get close, I notice that I actually have to take a sloping ledge down to the bridge before I can cross it, but the spot is marked with a glowing flower, so I'm not bothered. Once I get across the bridge, I find an enormous pair of metal doors sealed by magic, the crack between them glowing with brilliant light. I smile, take out the Crest of Artorias, and unlock the doors. They swing open with only the faintest creak.

Beyond is an enormous clearing, so big I can't see across it. I walk forward slowly, cautiously; as I get near the center, I start noticing a field of what turns out to be half-buried swords standing hilt-up around some sort of monument. Much closer, I see a sword far too large for any creature I've ever heard of to use, stuck in the ground just in front of an enormous stone structure shaped like a gravestone.

This must be the grave of Sir Artorias. In respect, I put away my weapons and remove my helm, then walk to the marker slowly. The huge sword, which must have belonged to the knight, is two, maybe three times my size, and glowing faintly in the moonlight. Slowly, I reach out a hand to touch it…

Suddenly, a shadow blocks the moonlight shining down on me. I look up, and see an enormous gray wolf glaring at me. It growls, then jumps down, quickly grabbing up the huge sword in its mouth. As soon as it's on the ground, it turns to face me, the sword now glowing blue, and it turns the sword around in its mouth with a toss of its head and howls at the moon through the hilt.

I didn't think any sort of creature that lacked arms would be even capable of swordfighting, but this wolf doesn't just swing the sword around, it does so elegantly, as effectively as any warrior I've ever seen. There's no time for me to even don my helm again. My shield can block one swing from the blade, but not two, and sometimes I get caught in a spinning attack that hits me twice. The only time I can safely strike is when I'm underneath the great beast - which really only occurs when it jumps at me - and sometimes I have to take that opportunity to drink from my Estus Flask, as I quickly learn that pausing to do so any other time is risky at best. Beating this thing is definitely possible with some maneuvering and patience, but a lucky strike from the huge sword slays me.

Back at the bonfire, Hollow again, I put my helm back on - at least I'll have that this time around; for not having anything covering my head, I did pretty well. Fully equipped, I run right back out to try again. The doorway is now blocked by a wall of white light. When I traverse it, I look around for my death spot - there was a humanity in there - but I have to run almost all the way around the place to find it, and get hit along the way. I manage to recover, but am killed moments later. Hopefully, if nothing else, this will put my death spot a bit closer to the door this time - I can't risk losing that humanity, it's all I've got.

When I run in this time - getting hit once again on the way - I focus on getting near the door after I recover, so I can recover more easily the next time I die. But when I manage to restore my health, I realize I'm in the best position I'll ever be to actually fight this beast, and so I do.

Caution and understanding of the wolf's pattern of attack are crucial as I dodge around it, taking the sword's force against my shield more often than not. Once I'm underneath it, its fur makes it all but impossible to see, and I swing blindly, usually getting a few hits in. The battle becomes a pattern of blue light trailing after sharp metal in the air and gray-and-white fur in my face, with very little time to breathe. Then, after a good while, the wolf starts to slow down: Its head droops, its movement slows, and I notice it's limping. Knowing I'm close, I let down some of my caution to keep striking it, and soon after, it falls.

For my victory, I get a Humanity sprite and a Homeward Bone, the wolf's soul, and a small ring. Looking into the shimmering golden soul tells me the beast was Sif the Great Gray Wolf, friend of Artorias the Abysswalker, inheritor of the divine knightsword, and guardian of the knight's grave. The ring is a thin band of greenish-yellow metal, set with a tiny green gem; I try it on, but though some sort of sensation rushes to my feet like a coating, I don't understand what I feel, so I put it away for the time being.

Everything is calm and still now. I look around the grave itself, and to my surprise, find a corpse carrying the Hornet Ring - the ring that was granted, not to Artorias, who wore the Wolf Ring (and now I understand why), but to the Lord's Blade Ciaran, whose dagger laid waste to Gwyn's enemies; I wonder what it's doing here, of all places. I put it away, then register the staggering amount of souls I'm carrying - plenty to do anything with, anything at all. With all this bounty on me, I don't want to bother with anyone or anything; I have two Homeward Bones, so I use the spare I just got, and return to the forest's bonfire.

First of all, I recovered the humanity I had, and use it now to revive myself. Next, I use the souls I've gathered to strengthen myself. And now…I'm not sure anymore - I doubt what I've accomplished will help me get through Anor Londo, but I don't have anything else left to do. Then I remember the ember I picked up, and decide to go talk to Andre. I cut down the plant creatures and pick up two clumps of purple moss on the way, then run up to him, the glowing ember in my hand.

He looks up at me. "Hmm, that's an odd ember you have there," he comments.

"Well, you can-" I begin, holding it out.

"Ahh, I know what you're thinking," he says, cutting me off. "But I'm no good with those. It won't be easy, but…you'll have to find someone else."

"Oh." I put it back, thinking; again, it feels magical, so maybe Rickert will be able to make use of it.

Since I'm here, I take a look at what Andre _can_ do for me. I realize I never upgraded my longbow, and that I can upgrade Pharis's bow just as easily; I do so, twice over, with the shards of titanite I've gathered. I still have those 78 large arrows from when I was trying to get the drake sword…maybe I can use this in Anor Londo. After having him repair my equipment, I bid him farewell, and decide to go talk to Rickert - I'm not looking forward to trying on the golden city again.

It's a somewhat convoluted path back I take to go down - I want to buy another batch of golden powder, so I don't take the lift. I cross the drake's bridge, go up the one tower, down the other, and through all of upper Undead Burg. Along the way, I notice that Solaire is gone; I wonder where he went.

When I get to the near-Hollow vendor, I find the golden repair powder painfully cheap. Even the repairbox he sells would be a steal - so I take it, figuring it will ensure that I'll never have broken equipment no matter what. Since I can, I also buy a small shield called a Heater Shield - it's a whole pound lighter than my Crest Shield, and though it's not very good against magic, it's as good, if not better, against everything else. For a minute, I think about using it until I find myself in a situation where I'm fighting magic. Then my pride wins out, and I stick with my Crest Shield - but I'll keep the little shield just in case. The merchant thanks me "very much" for my purchases, encourages me to come back soon, and giggles as I turn and walk away.

When I get back down to the Firelink Shrine, I'm surprised to see Big Hat Logan sitting near Griggs. I approach the younger man first, noting his grin.

"Oh, hello there!" he says brightly. "I've been waiting to tell you…" His chest swells up, and he declares, "Master Logan has returned." He grins again, then adds, "And he tells me has you to thank! Well, we are both in your debt now. He's right over there. Go along and have a chat."

"What about you?" I ask.

"Oh," he says. "I appreciate the attention, but you really should speak to Master Logan. He will certainly do you more good."

I nod. "Very well then," I say.

He nods back. "Goodbye, then," he tells me. "Do stay safe."

"And you," I reply. I walk over to Logan. "Hello?" I ask, unsure if I should be interrupting the famous introvert.

"There you are," he says, apparently unbothered. "I was expecting you. As promised, I will share my sorceries."

I take a look at what he has. Most of his spells are what Griggs offered, with two very noteworthy exceptions: Homing Soulmass, and Soul Spear. The former chases enemies, so I won't have to lock on to them; the latter is a legendary spell apparently credited to Logan, referenced in many legends, and said to be on par with Lord Gwyn's lightning. Unfortunately, after using up all the souls I got from Sif, I am nowhere near able to purchase either of them - not even Homing Soulmass, which I'm actually capable of using right now. I bid him farewell without purchasing anything.

"No results, eh," he murmurs. "Well, the way of sorcery is a long and hard road. Take it slowly."

"I will return," I promise.

First, I feed some of my junk to Frampt - since I figure I won't ever be able to use gold pine resin on weapons I actually want to fight with, I give him all of it, all seven batches. Then, I pass the dead bonfire, descend to the ruins of New Londo, and approach Rickert, slaughtering crestfallen Hollows along the way.

"Hey, hang on," he says, noticing the brilliant flame. "Is that…a sorcery ember?" His eyes widen. "I've never seen one like that, not even back in Vinheim," he breathes in awe. "What a brilliant flame! Please, friend, let me have that. I am begging you. I am a craftsman of Vinheim. I'd go Hollow before I pass up a flame like that!"

"No need to go to such drastic measures," I tell him, and I hand it over. "Of course you can have it."

His face lights up with pure joy. "Oh, really! You are wonderful!" he exclaims. "I will forge a Rickert masterpiece, just for you! A weapon to make a legend out of you…"

"I can make a legend out of myself," I say, half-teasingly. At the moment, though, I don't have any weapons I'd like to ascend thus, nor do I have the types of titanite required to do so, so I bid him farewell with only, "Do enjoy the company of that flame, friend."

"Come back soon," he says. "Smithing soothes my nerves. Don't let me wither away out of idleness."

"I will when I have a reason to," I promise, and I leave.

Being down here reminds me that there are still parts of the poison swamp below Blighttown that I haven't explored - and I've gathered more clumps of purple moss, I'd be fine down there. I'm a bit hurt, but one swig of Estus fully restores me, and I decide to descend via the valley of drakes. This time, though, I promise myself I won't forget to wash off once I climb back up.

As soon as the darkness swallows me, I take out my catalyst and use Cast Light. This only turns out to help a little bit, but any aid in this dreary place is welcome. I'm not too careful with the ghouls along the way, but I find that I don't need to be as cautious as I used to - though of course, a certain amount of caution is still necessary. A mosquito nearly poisons me on the way down, but fails; I have to cast the lighting spell again once I reach the swamp, and I also swap out the Cloranthy Ring for the rusted iron ring. Then I jog around through the muck, looking for what I know I haven't found, poison soon sapping at my vitality, but so slowly that I don't bother fixing it; I don't find anything but some bugs, so I stop at the bonfire and heal.

Where have I not been around here? There's this one corner I've been instinctively avoiding, just outside the spider mound on the far side. What's there? She's been keeping me away from there; now it's time to find out why. I stand up again and make a beeline straight for it, using Cast Light again as I go just in case.

At first, I find nothing. Then, I come across a ghoul wielding a boulder. It's no stronger than the ones I've been fighting thus far, so I go in without much concern - it's slow and unwieldy, and easy to dodge around. What I don't count on, though, is the boulders that come crashing into me from somewhere to my left; these knock me to the ground, and allow the ghoul I'm fighting to eventually smash me.

Okay, now I know what's waiting for me; I will conquer this. I go in from a slightly different angle this time, barely even registering that I'm Hollow, and engage both boulder ghouls at once. They're still formidable, but having my eyes on both of them really helps. Among the other things, they sometimes set their boulders down and roll them along a little ways; this would probably hurt a lot to get hit by, but as it is, it just makes them easier to kill. I defeat them and recover my death spot; a corpse carrying a great club is my only reward.

Now I follow the far wall to the spider mound, and find nothing. I then go forward to search the center of the edge of the mound, and find three more boulder ghouls. This is also about where the mosquitos start to catch up. At one point, I'm right on the brink of death, poison sapping at the last of my strength, but manage to take a drink of Estus just in time. There's nothing else to find, though - I search hard, and find nothing at all. I return to the bonfire, disappointed.

Then I realize something: I never searched _inside_ the spider mound all that much - sure, I rang the bell, but I went back right away without even taking a look around. Now's as good a time as any to do it, since I'm here. I stand up and run to the web-covered world, eat a clump of purple moss, and descend into the dead spider's lair.

The place is as spidery as I remember, and the two unfortunate souls with eggs growing on their backs, mouthing endless prayers, still confuse me. I jog through the vast cave and into the bell tower, and this time, I walk past the lever; the moment I do, I find stairs leading down, and beyond them, a world of lava, with buildings built into cliffs above the glowing molten rock in the far-off. It's really an amazing sight. How could I have missed all this?

Down the stairs, I find a floor beneath where the bell's lever sits; the center looks like a round lift, but standing on it does nothing. There's a busted stone brick wall, which I pass through, heat making my skin prickle. Through another short, webby cave, I come out and find a red-hot world. Many of those people with eggs on their backs are scattered around ahead of me, praying constantly; I walk towards them, and find a dormant bonfire, which I light and rest at.

What is this that I have found? Is this the center of the earth? Hell? It's some hot, horrible place, that much is certain. Heat doesn't bother Undead as much as the living, same as cold, but it's still uncomfortable down here…and now that I've rested at this bonfire, there's no shortcut back out. I guess I can only look…

But first, I'm tired. I've been running around a lot, discovering things, killing things, and learning things. Even in the unpleasant heat, I can find enough comfort on the ground - which is still coated in sticky webbing - to lie down and sleep.


	28. Chapter 27

When I rise to explore, I have to take a moment to ask myself what I'm doing. I'm supposed to be conquering Anor Londo, looking for the Lordvessel, whatever that is. Instead, I'm in a fiery pit full of monsters and, from the look of things, sorrow. All the same, I'm here now, and I suppose I might as well see what's here before I go back up.

I slowly walk up the hill, looking all around me, passing more than a dozen people bearing eggs. When I crest the top, I'm met with a view of a huge, glowing river of orange lava; the sight alone makes me sweat through my Hollowed skin. A little further, the webbing covering the ground ends, and I notice a bridge across the lava behind me and to my right; I have to descend the hill, then go back around, to get to it. On the way, two of the egg-laden people start crawling towards me, instead of just praying silently. I'm not sure if they want my help, or if they mean me harm; in a place like this, I won't take the risk. They're slow, and I outrun them easily. The path I need to take is a ledge that goes around the hill to my right, and I take it, passing through an ornate stone archway that isn't surrounded by even the ruined traces of a wall. Beyond this, I find the bridge I saw; it turns out to be more of a buttress than a bridge, but it takes me across the lava all the same. Looking over the edge to my right, I see a more intact set of ruins far below, square pillars and stairs marking real places. Across the parapet, I find myself on the top of a large tower that I can't tell if it's intended to be a place to go or not; there's a ring near the middle, surrounding a small divot that surrounds a bump. This proves pointless.

Beyond this, I find myself on another craggy ledge. A stone archway twice the size of the one I passed through earlier is blocked by white light; I could see the other side of it on the way over here, so I'm not too concerned as I traverse it. However, it doesn't dissipate behind me, and when I try to go back, I find that I'm blocked. Confused, I proceed slowly, my shield raised.

More ornate square pillars line the path now, though most are crumbling or at least toppled. After a little while, I see some stairs ahead; I run up them, curious. At the top, the path splits, a ravine between two rocky hills to my right, some crumbled pillars lining a ledge to my left. The left path provides a better view of the surroundings, so that's the way I take - I don't want to be surprised.

Around the rocky hill the ledge circumvents, I'm met with the sight of many glowing, writhing arms, like tentacles of lava. They way they move suggests that they're coming off the top of something that's breathing; I think I can see some of the body, but it just mostly looks like half-cooled magma. Wary, I raise my shield and proceed very slowly. Across a rather wide expanse of dirty rock, I find myself facing what I think might be the head. It looks like it's framed by two ram-like horns, and has two holes like the nose holes of a skull just above a gaping mouth that opens and closes as it rises and falls with each breath; above these, some round holes in its maroon face glow red, like eyes. Of course, none of these may be what they look like, it could easily be pareidolia. I can also hear the squishy noises of the thing's appendages moving. Sheer heat radiates from it, just as it does from the lava below.

For a long time, I stare at the molten creature, waiting for it to do something. It doesn't move, doesn't acknowledge my presence. After a while, I cautiously walk past it; it still does nothing. A ledge grants passage around another hill of stone, and beyond that is a crevasse in the rocks, the back corner of which is marked by what looks like the crumbling remains of an altar. Suspiciously, a dead body lies on the block of stone; I hesitate a moment, then take what it's got: a set of gold-lined, heat-resistant robes, meant for a woman. As soon as I have my prize, the monster behind me gives a huge roar. This wasn't unexpected, and I turn around and try to run back, but one swipe from one of its appendages, and I'm instantly dead.

Back at the bonfire, I take a moment to examine the hooded robe I've found. It seems to be the garb worn by Witch Quelana of Izalith - _the_ Witch of Izalith, I think, or at least one of her circle of witches that she shared her Lord Soul with. The garments date back to before even the dawn of the Age of Fire. Was that corpse…could it have been… _her_? It seems unlikely…but perhaps. The Witch herself was the mother of pyromancy, and this fiery place _would_ be a perfect birthplace for the craft. Either way, though, I need to fight and kill that monster - I could go back up now, yes, but I want to kill that creature and recover my death spot.

The trek back is short and easy; the moment I traverse the wall of white light, however, the monster is already riled. It's at the other end of the passage, though, and she guides my feet to the ravine I noticed earlier. I get struck once on the way there, as it makes its way around towards me, but once I'm in, I understand - the ravine itself turns out to just be a space between the lower wall of the cave and a mound of stone, but the creature can't hit me here. It's also easy to lure it into trying, and when it does, it leaves one of its longer clawed, fiery tentacles lying in the middle of the passage for me to swipe at. Funny how hitting this one barb can hurt it badly enough to bring about its death, but it's something I won't question. I continue baiting the monster and swinging at its one appendage when I get the chance; it strikes me a few times, but I survive, and heal myself in the safety of the narrow passage. Eventually, it dies, leaving me with a Humanity sprite and a Homeward Bone.

I run out to watch it fall into the lava below. As I do, I notice the temperature around here drop ever-so-slightly; beyond, the river of lava partially hardens, meaning I have a path down there that I can probably follow now. First, I go and recover my death spot from next to the altar, and then I turn around and walk over to the hill that leads up to the spider cave. The hill did go further than I'd explored, I noticed before, but now it leads down to a path that is cool enough to be solid, if not much more; I know I should probably be on my way back to Anor Londo, but I just earned the right to explore this place, so that's what I'm going to do.

Past the egg-bearers, down a stone ramp that used to lead into the lava, I'm soon standing on the recently-cooled molten rock. The wrinkly obsidian beneath me doesn't quite burn through my boots, but it's very hot down here, standing right next to pools of magma. It was probably even worse for her - she hated heat. Still, I start walking around the lava field, unsure what there might be to find given that this was all molten mere minutes ago, but sure enough that there _is_ something. A red mist, like fog made of pure heat, makes seeing around here a bit difficult, but I can at least tell when I'm standing on solid rock. Around I search, running all but aimlessly, noticing the little lavafalls trickling down the rocks in the distance into the still-molten pools. Then, I see some creatures through the haze.

They're standing on the recently-cooled lava; as I draw close, one notices me and comes at me, wielding a demonic greataxe. I start fighting, trying hard to stay out of its reach when I can; it's hard to see in the fire-fog, but I think it might be the same sort of creature as the tauros demon I fought on the way to the first Bell of Awakening, if a bit smaller. It moves a lot like a black knight with a greatsword, the one at the top of the tower near the church…its weapon's reach is longer, yes, but I can still manage. Eventually, I take it down. Through the pendant, she informs me that that particular beast is now gone forever.

After that, I start luring the beasts away from their group one at a time and fighting them. Each one provides a bit more insight into their patterns. After killing the second one, I accidentally draw the attention of two at once; knowing I could never achieve victory two-to-one, I run back up to the bonfire to collect some more Estus and strengthen myself with the souls I've gathered, then go back down. They notice me from quite a distance, so I learn to be a bit more careful each time. It's not until after a few more fall that it occurs to me to take off my rusty iron ring and put on the Cloranthy Ring, but to little detriment. Once the last one falls, I have one swallow of Estus left in my Flask.

Beyond where the tauros demons were, the far end of the lava field turns out to hold a corpse lying on the molten lava, and seeing that it at least isn't sinking, I decide to run out and see if I can grab it without dying. I can't; I burn up and die. That's okay, it doesn't really cost me anything. There's nothing else here, so once I recover my death spot, I start going around the lava pools along the far side, exploring the rest of the field. Another corpse is on a patch of solid rock across a river of lava, but I've learned my lesson and pass it by.

Back around the side closer to the hill I came down, I find a body I can actually reach, and beyond it, I see another demon. This one looks like the creature that held the key to the sewers that led to Blighttown - which, come to think of it, led to here in turn. It's a bit smaller, as the tauros demons had been, and its moves are essentially the same; I kill it easily. This one, however, will be back, she informs me. Once it's dead, the body I noticed turns out to carry a large soulmass.

Past where the capra demon was standing, a short ledge leads to the balcony of an old building. Finally setting foot on a stone floor, I proceed forward, all the more curious to see what's here now. The balcony turns out to lead to a long, narrow ledge, sparsely paved with stone tiles, that brings me to the same old building I saw from above earlier. Inside, several capra demons wait; I walk in without concern and start fighting them one by one, as I did with the tauros demons - this time, though, I lure each one away by casting a Great Soul Arrow at it, just to be safe. One of them drops its great demon machete. From a protruding section of balcony, I see a doorway blocked by bright golden light, like what I saw in Anor Londo. I wonder…

Down some stairs, I find a rotund stone figurine that comes alive and breathes fire at me; it goes down pretty easily. There's a path forward, but I go back, along the space below where I just was. It's here that I discover what looks like an enormous millipede poking out of the wall; I shoot it with a spell, and it does nothing, but something has me on edge - it looks lively. I start casting Great Soul Arrows at it; it disintegrates on my second-to-last use, leaving my final casting of the spell to fall to the floor. Past it, I find a corpse bearing a large soulmass - and a bonfire, which I light immediately. The soulmass gives me just enough souls to strengthen myself.

Through the fire, she tells me about her experience with the millipede I just killed: It spewed acid at her, destroying her weapons, and though she had a batch of gold powder with which to revive her right-hand weapon, she thought it had also destroyed her shield (though she later discovered that it hadn't), and since she also didn't have a repairbox, she spent the entire rest of her time down here with her shield on her back, using only her Divine Winged Spear to fight capra demons and tauros demons and fire-breathing statues. It's kind of impressive that she actually made it out, no less so for the fact that she came down here at about the same point in her quest as I have.

Our conversation done, I go back out and down the crumbling stairs I saw before that lead away from the building; it's lined with fire-breathing statues that crawl along the ground. Near the bottom, after I've killed all four, a tauros demon comes running for me. The fight with it takes us all the way back up the stairs and almost to the wall behind the stairs that lead up and out; when it falls, she informs me that that particular tauros demon _will_ be back - anything beyond here will.

When I climb back down the stairs, as soon as I get to the bottom, another millipede comes out of the ground just a little ways to my right. I back up a bit, take out my catalyst, and start shooting; it goes down with no trouble. Before climbing up to the doorway blocked by golden light, I take a path to my left. Here, I find another tauros demon, and fight it and take it down with no problem. At the other end of the narrow ledge it was guarding, I find yet another tauros demon, and I think it's the last one; the limited space to move around in doesn't hinder me much. The ledge itself leads to another balcony that appears empty; when I start walking down it, however, a giant millipede comes out of the ceiling. Since I only have five uses of my Great Soul Arrow left - not nearly enough to fight it - I turn back. Finally, I climb up to the wall of golden light, killing the two living statues flanking it. My hand connects with the light, and runes appear:

"Sealed by the Great Lord's power"

Just like in Anor Londo. If I am to _be_ the Great Lord, surely I'll be able to dispel this barrier sooner or later. For now, though, I cannot pass.

To the left of the wall of light is nothing; to the right is a small ledge with a capra demon and a body. I'm too cocky in how I fight the capra demon, and with a couple of diving blows, it manages to kill me. The bonfire is close, and there's only that little patch left to explore, so I fight my way back in; the corpse I earn the right to pillage bears the largest soulmass I've yet seen. Then, there's nothing else, and I start fighting my way back out.

The first time I try to climb back up, one of the capra demons kills me. It doesn't bother me all that much. On my second try, I manage to kill one more capra demon before one kills me. Again, it doesn't really bother me. I've found everything, and I know I can make it out; what does it matter how many times I die? And with that firmly in mind, the third time, I make it out. Once all six of the capra demons are dead - some with a fair amount of luck - nothing of note happens.

After I climb out of the spider nest, I put on my rusted iron ring and quickly run back to the bonfire in the culvert. While the noxious fumes of the swamp aren't exactly more pleasant than the terrible heat I just escaped, it's nice to at least not be sweating as much. Once I've marked my place, I climb out the way that leads to the valley of drakes. Compared to the monsters I've just been fighting, the ghouls in the exit are easy to slaughter. Then, I pass through New Londo, take the lift to Firelink Shrine, feed my junk to Frampt - including the clothes from the Witch of Izalith, which simply don't suit me - take the lift from Firelink Shrine to the Undead Parish, stop at the bonfire above Andre's forge, enter Sen's Fortress, take the lift to the top, and reach the golden ring of light that signals bat demons to bring me back to Anor Londo. It's time to finish this. I don't even realize that I forgot to wash off.


	29. Chapter 28

The golden city is, if anything, even more beautiful for the ruin and desolation I've seen recently. Once again, I'm soiling the place with boots crusted with mud from the Blighttown swamp, but no matter.

When I reach the bonfire guarded by the Fire Keeper, it occurs to me that I have two Humanity sprites - I can use one to revive myself, and the other to finally make use of the Rite of Kindling I found down in the Catacombs, so I do so. Enough Estus for fifteen swallows fills my flask, and the flames begin to wave and rage, like those of a true bonfire. Being un-Hollowed, I am ready.

I haven't forgotten how to get to where I was before; none of the creatures prior to the archers pose much of a threat, most none at all. Then, however, I'm stuck with the archers again. My idea for using the black bow returns to me, and I decide to try it. First, I run up to the first building - the closest I can get without being at risk. Next, I wait for the javelins to stop coming. Then, I ready my bow, creep out to the right, and try to shoot at the figure in the distance. It takes a few tries to get the shot lined up properly, but after a while, I manage to hit it. The damage is minimal, but with the number of arrows I have, I won't lose hope that this might work. It's just a matter of patience - I only have the one chance to get this right, unless I want to end up going back and buying another load of arrows. A little over two dozen arrows later, it occurs to me that the gold pine resin I fed to Frampt would actually probably have been useful here. Oh well.

What I discover is that the rule of thumb for fighting arrows with arrows is, if your opponent can hit you, then you can hit them. I wait for the knight to ready its bow before shooting my own arrow, then duck back behind the corner. She never even tried this…It's funny, she always used to talk about how much she admired archery, but when her time came, she almost never used a bow. My love wasn't a very bright woman - but she was stubborn enough to compensate most of the time.

Nearly four dozen arrows later, I watch the monster disintegrate. I _might_ have enough to take down the other one in the same way, but this took time, and I'm ready to move ahead; I don't bother, and run up the final buttress. The other knight notices me and starts shooting, and I wait behind a tower for it to give up. When it does, I run for it. After shooting a couple of javelins and missing, it puts away its enormous bow and takes out a sword. We exchange a few blows, and then, once I'm back on the ledge, as it takes a swing from the top of the parapet, it slips and falls off the edge, leaving me to do as I please. The buttress this knight was on bears a corpse carrying an enormous soulmass. Back the other way, I round the tower that forms the corner of the building, along the ledge where the other archer was standing, then drop down onto a balcony. Here, there's a door-sized window blocked by a wall of white light; I traverse it, and it dissipates behind me.

Now I'm in a wide hallway. Ahead, I see a normal-sized doorway to either side, and further, a spiral staircase that appears to go through the center of this building. I try the left door first, find it unlocked, and come across none other than Knight Solaire, sitting cross-legged next to an unlit bonfire. Eagerly, I light and sit down at the bonfire myself, using the souls I've gathered. Then I stand up, put away my weapons and helm, and approach him.

"Oh, there you are," he says. "You've been quiet these days. Smooth summoning out there? Anytime you see my brilliantly shining signature, do not hesitate to call upon me. You've left me with quite an impression. I would relish a chance to assist you."

"You assisted me with the gargoyle on the bell tower," I remind him. "But I will summon you again if the need arises." I hesitate a moment, then ask, "So, what are you doing here? How did you even get here?"

"You really are fond of chatting with me, aren't you?" he teases in reply. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you had feelings for me!"

I blink.

"Oh, no, dear me," he says a moment later. "Pretend you didn't hear that!" He chuckles.

"Gladly," I mutter. "Well, if there's nothing else, I'll be on my way." With that, I go, re-equipping myself along the way.

Across the hall is another door, which also turns out to be unlocked; this leads to a room with another silver knight wielding a long, thin spear with a long point. It takes a bit of maneuvering, but I cut it down. When it falls, it drops its spear; this is a beautiful weapon, but I'm happy with my drake sword. The knight was guarding a treasure chest; I swing at it once just to be safe, then open it and find three sunlight medals. I'm still not sure what use these things are, but I tuck them away all the same - maybe I'll feed them to Frampt at some point.

There's also a fireplace in this room, I notice, and a very elegant one at that. Noticing this, I also register the tables and chairs in here, the furnishings of a real room - this place feels almost like a home. For a moment, a longing for the life I shared with her before the Curse of the Undead struck us down wells in my chest, and I feel the corners of my eyes sting, but I shake it off; there's no time for that.

The area just beyond the hallway, built around an elegant spiral staircase and full of thick pillars, is too big to see from one view. I go around the right-hand side, find an open space that goes nowhere, and am attacked by a sword-bearing silver knight that was waiting just ahead, which I take down without much trouble. To the other side of the staircase is a space similarly empty, but before I climb the stairs, I look down the hallway on the opposite side of the room to where I came in. There are two more doors here, one on either side; near the end of the hallway and to my left, a small window allows me to look into a room, but there isn't much to see. When I open the door that should lead to it, however, the room is far too small. The wall between me and the space I saw is blocked by a fireplace; on a hunch, I enter the fireplace and swing my sword at the wall behind it. Sure enough, it vanishes, revealing a dark room with an open space. I see some stairs somewhere, but drop down in the dark before I actually reach them; little harm done.

What I find in the dark space is a bunch of smooth, round pillars, scattered throughout a large space seemingly at random. I'm not sure what's here, and neither is she; she never found this. After a little ways, I use the Cast Light spell to illuminate a bit more; somewhat reassured, I continue looking around. Finally, along the far wall to the right, I find five treasure chests.

The one at the middle of the back wall, I swing at, revealing it to be a mimic. I fight it and kill it, and it drops a club that has been raised to Occult level - a force I've never seen before. Both treasure chests on the back wall in the right-hand corner turn out to be real; the one to the left contains a heavy club made from a dragon's tooth, and the one to the right contains Havel's Greatshield - both companion to Havel's Ring. The two treasure chests along the right-hand wall are also both real, and contain the full set of Havel's armor. This is a powerful set of tools, but it's all _very_ heavy - even with Havel's Ring, I doubt I'd be able to wield it all. So, I put it all away; if nothing else, I can always feed it to Frampt. After I confirm that there's nothing else here, I climb back up and out, and continue exploring.

Across the hall, the door is locked from the other side. With no other options, I take the spiral staircase up. The area on the next floor is shaped similarly, but the hallway I come up facing isn't very long, though it still has the two doors - it ends at a banister. The right-hand door is already open, but before I look in either of them, I look around the staircase itself.

Around the spot to the left of where I entered, I find a treasure chest. Hitting it reveals that it is in fact a mimic; it goes down easily, and drops five silver coins, stamped with a portrait of the legendary Knight King Rendal. As with the copper coin I got from Petrus, these make me smile, and I tuck them away. On the other side, there's another treasure chest mimic, and it too falls before me, though its wild swinging movements do smash a pot during the fight. It drops a single gold coin bearing the visage of Allfather Lloyd and his white halo, which I also keep. Exploration done, I now inspect the doors I first saw when I came up here. The open door to the right leads only to a balcony looking down on another room; the door to the left reveals another silver knight with a spear, which I dispatch after a bit of a struggle. Inside the room itself is an identical balcony, but a corpse carrying another enormous soulmass is on this one. On the other side of the staircase is another wide hallway; a warning about the opening at the far end surges to me through the pendant, and I raise my shield and run forward towards the silver knight that eventually starts shooting javelins at me. I reach it, and after some swordfighting, it falls; the balcony it was standing on is small and empty.

This leaves me with two doors. The one to the left of where I came in leads to an empty, beautifully furnished bedroom. For a moment, the bed is tempting, but since I could be killed by a knight in my sleep, I leave it be. Still, the oriental carpets, the green-and-gold-patterned wallpaper, the oil paintings hanging on the walls…this was a place of luxury, the likes of which I never experienced, only dreamed of, even when alive.

A door on the far wall to the right leads to a small room with a silver knight. We engage in some swordfighting, and I come out victorious - though I do wince as our fight smashes a table and some chairs, as those things were once valuable, and am genuinely glad we don't smash a nearby dresser or any pottery. The room the knight was in leads to a spiral staircase, which I at first intend to leave for later; however, the door across the hall is locked from the other side, leaving me with no other route to take.

Up the stairs, I find myself in the corner of a rooftop, with two silver knights in sight - one in a tower across from the one I came out of, the other on the far end of the roof - though I'm apparently too far away for them to care about me initially. On an inspired hunch, I go for the one further away from me first. Sure enough, it takes out an enormous bow and starts shooting javelins at me; they all miss, and we go sword-to-sword. When I win, I then go back for the other silver knight, and kill it too.

My enemies down, I look around on the rooftop itself and find nothing, then discover that _both_ silver knights were guarding spiral staircases. After some deliberation, I decide to take the one closer to the way I came first, since it seems less significant - the other has a few stairs leading up to the entrance. It's also about here that I start to notice that there are signs of moss and fungus in the cracks of the stone tiles beneath my feet - for all its glory, Anor Londo is still a fallen city.

At the bottom of the stairs, I find another small room, but something seems to be loudly missing. A small door is here, and I open it, see multiple silver knights, and close; a sword strikes me through the door, and as I back away, I hear it being opened - I didn't know my enemies could open doors, I assumed they were too Hollow to think things through that well. I take a breath back on the roof, then go down again; there is still no one there, just an open window. I'm not sure what her problem is, but I shrug it off and go to fight the silver knights. Lure one out, fight it, kill it, drink some Estus; lure another out, fight it, kill it, drink some Estus; confront the third, fight it, and kill it. With the monsters gone, I find myself in another ornate bedroom. It takes me a minute for me to find the treasure chest, and when I open it, it contains only two odd chunks of titanite, like what I get from headless demons. The door in this room leads back out to where I just was.

Finally, I go back to the roof and descend the other spiral staircase. This one seems somehow paired with the first main spiral staircase, running above it or below it, I can't tell. At the bottom, I find a relatively narrow hallway, with a doorway on either side and stairs leading upwards ahead. These doorways are open. First, I take the left-hand one, and find a headless demon; I immediately leave, since I haven't even killed the remaining ones in Sen's Fortress yet. The doorway to the right leads to another room with a balcony looking down on a room below, except that this one has stairs that actually lead down to the room. A silver knight with a spear meets me on the way up; when I get to the bottom after killing it, another silver knight is waiting. This second one waits for me to hit it before it moves, and I slaughter it. Two (real, I check to make sure) treasure chests contain my reward: a set of silver knight armor. Down here is a door that leads to the hallway across which is the room with the illusory fireplace wall. This also brings me to the floor with Solaire and the bonfire, which is good, as I'm nearly out of Estus.

I stop at the bonfire to rest and regroup. Then, I go out again, this time aiming to climb the stairs I saw before. The silver knights that have returned give me some trouble along the way, but not too much. It's as I head to the shortcut after killing the two silver knights in the room that I notice all the heads mounted on the wall; I go back down the stairs and take a closer look. What are these? Drakes? Dragons? They definitely look draconian…oh well.

Up the shortcut stairs, then up the stairs that are the only path I've not yet taken. This leads to the balcony of an enormous room, stairs to my left leading up and down. I go up first. Here, I find only an area with stained-glass windows looking out on the city, one of which is broken; I could probably jump out of it and find something, but I don't want to just yet, as I have no means of getting back. Instead, I turn around and take the identical stairs that go down the other way, and that's when I notice the doorway blocked by white light on the other end of the room. This is probably my ultimate goal. Down the stairs that aren't the ones I came up, I'm met with another silver knight that shoots javelins at me; I try to fight it, but at one point, as I poorly judge the timing to take a swig of Estus, the knight kills me.

Now I'm Hollow again. I was just near the end, and was Hollowed at the last minute. That makes me mad, and I go charging out again. The silver knights on the way get slaughtered - including the one that killed me last time. I'm in the clear now, and I go down the stairs on this side that mirror the stairs on the other side to the floor of the grand chamber.

As I descend the second-to-last set of stairs, I feel the Black Eye Orb that I picked up from the dead Fire Keeper's corpse quivering. This must be a place where I can seek vengeance on whoever killed her, and hopefully reclaim her soul so I can fix the bonfire in Firelink Shrine. First, though, I'm faced with armor knights twice the size of the ones outside, these wearing tattered cloaks of sorts - capes that drape their fronts as well as their backs. It's just one to start with, but it takes blows from my sword without losing much health, and I start backing up, worried. The fight happens on the stairs for a while, and a second one joins in at some point (though I plunge down from the stairs sword-first on the first one before I can even be sure)…I think I see one cast a spell once, too. Then, I'm in the huge room, and I run for the huge metal doors at the end opposite the wall of white light; I try to open them, but they're sealed. The giant armor knight I was fighting before slowly comes back down, and I decide to fight and kill it. It's a bit of a struggle, but I succeed.

Left with breathing room, I notice a huge lever to one side of the doors. I walk over to it and push it, turning the huge wheel; the doors open, and sure enough, they're the doors flanked by the two armor knights that I passed when I first came to storm this place. Relieved, I run out and return to the bonfire. Fifteen swallows of Estus, and a shortcut to the final room of the castle. 'Accomplished' doesn't begin to describe how I feel.

But wasn't there another place? That gate to the left still isn't open. And…the Black Eye Orb. The Fire Keeper. Could I…still save her? Can I do it even while Hollow? There's too much exploring left to do before I move forward. That's what I decide to do.

I go back out, climb the stairs, ignore all the armor knights, and climb the inside stairs to the left again, where the silver knight waits. That's fine, I can deal with a silver knight - especially when it tries shooting javelins at me while I'm right below it and it can't hit me. For a moment, I'm worried it'll keep me trapped before I can get out of range of the giant armor knight that I know is following me, but I get through when I knock the knight off-balance with three consecutive strikes. It falls soon after. Okay, exploration time. I find no doorway here, like there is on the other side, but I remember the broken window; it's time to jump out of it and see where it goes, now that I have a shortcut back here.

A series of drops brings me to a balcony where I find a corpse bearing one of the giant bows and one of the javelins that knights around here have been using against me; I am actually capable of using it right now, but it's heavy, and I only get the one arrow for it. From up here, I can see down to an area with those pink bat-demon things. One is immediately below me, and I decide I could probably kill it with a plunging attack. This succeeds, and when I look around, I think my eyes deceived me earlier - there's only one other down here, instead of two like I thought. What is also here is that gate I noticed before; I unlock it and turn around, trying to figure out where the metal clanging sound I hear is coming from - it sounds like footsteps, but the demon isn't moving…

Suddenly, a tremendous blow to my back sends me flying; the armor knight to this side of the doors is still locked onto me, and it hit me through the tiny door. Surprised, I run down the few stairs to take refuge; it tries to chase me, but it's so much too big to fit that it's almost laughable. I take a swig of Estus and turn my attention to the bat, the clanging sound still bugging me. It's not the rhythmic pounding of a smith…is it?

The remaining bat-demon thing goes down easily, and I pass through the doorway it was guarding to find…a giant, sitting on a small wooden stool, beating at metal on an anvil. This is the source of the sound I've been hearing. The smithery is littered with tools, just like Andre's. For a minute, I watch the giant work. _Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!…Clang! Tap. Tap. Tap. Ting tingtingtingting._ It's trying to be precise, which is admirable for something so huge.

"Um…excuse me?" I call.

"Who are you?" he grumbles. "Forge your weapons?"

He doesn't say anything else, so I take a look at what he offers. I think he can ascend weapons to a lightning form - and also, he can alter my catalyst, using special souls I haven't gathered or heard of before. First, I have him repair all of my equipment, then see what he has to sell. He sells titanite shards, large titanite shards, green titanite shards, and twinkling titanite - the second and fourth of those things being exactly what I need right now! They're pricy, though. Still, I buy the three large shards of titanite I need to reinforce my boots. I can then reinforce them further twice over with titanite chunks I've gathered.

"You have some interesting abilities," I note. "Who are you?"

"Talk, no good," he grunts. "But forge…very good! I help anytime."

"Er…thanks," I say. "I'll come back another time."

"Cometh soon," he says, and nothing more.

Our business done, I look around. Behind the giant is a treasure chest, almost completely blocked by his hulking form; I manage to get around him and open it, and he doesn't protest. Inside, I find the Hawk Ring, former ring of Hawkeye Gough, one of the four knights of Gwyn, used to extend a bow's range. Maybe I won't dump the giant bow I picked up earlier.

There are also some stairs in here. They go high, and lead to yet more stairs, which lead me out to…the balcony above the big room, through an opening in the wall closer to the broken window that I didn't notice. Sigh. That's kind of embarrassing.

Still, now I've done most of what I intend to do before facing the next challenge. Before that, though, I want to see if I can restore the Fire Keeper down at Firelink Shrine. I descend to a level that the Black Eye Orb finds acceptable, then activate it, drawing on its power to bring me to the world of whoever took the Fire Keeper's life. It searches, finds what it's looking for, and takes me away.

Through the power of the orb, I rise as a blue phantom in some alternate version of the great hall I was in. Runes tell me that I have invaded the world of Knight Lautrec the Guilty…so it was him, just as she said. I'm close to the doorway blocked by white light and facing away from it; across the room, I see three figures, two of which glow white - allies to the real person here. This will be three against one.

Well…so be it. I walk forward.

"Well, look at you," Lautrec says as I draw close. "I thought you were wiser, but I thought wrong! 'Tis a terrible pity. Like a moth flittering towards a flame. You fellows?" he adds, addressing his allies, who are already running for me. "No? Don't you agree?"

Nothing follows this, and I begin fighting them. One of the allies is a spellcaster, and she tells me to focus on him first; I do so, and dodge all of his spells, striking at him whenever I get a chance. Eventually, he falls, but not before I lose half my health to Lautrec himself. In this phantom form, I can't use my Estus Flask; my best chance is to stay on guard and strike only when I can. Next, I focus on the other ally. As I do so, I notice that Lautrec can hit me through my shield - I have no means of protecting myself from him, and no easy means of restoring my health. Just as I manage to kill the other phantom, Lautrec kills me.

I rise next to the bonfire; I have not lost my souls, for being killed as an avenging phantom bears no penalty. Still…I need to try again - I was so close, and his taunts only encourage me. It occurs to me that I still have the Divine Blessing I found in Sen's Fortress - I'll use it to restore my health if need be, but only when I'm desperate; I put it on-hand for easy access, replacing my Homeward Bones. Then, I return to the castle to try again, not bothering with the armor knights on the way; I have to climb a ways up the stairs to get enough peace to use the Black Eye Orb again, but I manage.

Lautrec's allies are back when I rise again. Again, I go forth, shield up, ready to kill them all.

"So, here we go again," he taunts as the fight begins. "How many times will the lambs rush to slaughter? Well, let's get this over with!"

I'm a bit more careful this time, though I do swipe when I can. At one point, after killing the sorcerer, I'm near death, so I use the Divine Blessing. Because of this, I'm able to survive long enough to kill the other phantom. When it's just me against Lautrec, though I still need to be careful, the odds turn in my favor. He and I reach our last bit of health at the same time; an aura starts glowing around him, like that which a tearstone makes, and as he rolls, I jump in to slash - there are red tearstone rings, too, that boost attack when the wearer is near death, and I'm not taking any chances.

He falls.

In the manner of avenging phantoms of the legendary Blades of the Darkmoon, I take one of his ears as a souvenir of reprisal. When I return to my own world, I get the Fire Keeper's soul, a Ring of Favor and Protection, and a whole _five_ Humanity sprites. The ring is powerful, boosting vitality and energy limits as well as how much a person can carry, but it's not as good at the third thing as Havel's Ring, and I know I'd be sluggish again if I swapped it out. Also, though the gold is beautifully engraved and the band is wide, the metal itself is almost paper thin - if I'm able to get it on my finger, there's no way I'll be able to take it off without breaking it. Unable to make use of it, I set it aside for now.

Out the door, I decide to take a brief detour to the gate to my right (left if I'm coming towards the building). The bat-demon I plunged down on before tries to fight me, but I knock it back onto a slanting buttress that it can't get back up from. I'm not sure at first that it will fall off, so a split second before it does, I take another swing at it, putting _me_ on the beam. For a moment, I panic, but soon find I can get back up. Now I go out the other way - everything in this city is symmetrical, and there are stairs down on this side just as there were on the other side. This is where I find the bat-demon I thought I saw before, as well as another one that I didn't see; I slaughter one, and knock the other off the edge. My reward is a corpse, on which I find a chunk of titanite.

Now I'm ready to go back to the bonfire, to restore my humanity and get ready for the fight. I try to run out the gate, but a giant armor knight from inside and the armor knight from outside that I passed are both trying to get through to kill me, so I retreat and use a Homeward Bone, which I put back on-hand where the Divine Blessing was.

Once I'm back at the bonfire, it's as I'm looking through my stuff for the Humanity sprites that I remember that I also reclaimed the Fire Keeper's soul. I could give it to the Fire Keeper in the room with me right now and use it to reinforce my Estus Flask, but…the bonfire at Firelink Shrine being dead is really inconvenient. Before anything else, I need to go back and restore her. So, when I rise, I return to Sen's fortress.

Shortly after reaching Sen's fortress, I accidentally slip and fall - not to my death, just a bit further down than I wanted to be. It's not too inconvenient, and make it to the cage lifts all right; at the bottom, I start to engage the snake-man, but it jumps back to dodge and gets knocked off the bridge by one of the swinging blades. Somehow, it manages to climb back up and meet me at the end of the bridge where I mean to go, though, and more or less uninjured; I don't question it, I just kill it. I also fight the two other snake-men along the way, and a bit of running and another lift ride later, I'm back at the Firelink Shrine.

Ignoring Frampt, I go straight to the spot where the Fire Keeper's corpse still rests. To relieve myself and free my hands, I put away my weapons and remove my helmet; then, I examine the body. Can it still take the soul? With no other ideas, I try it, taking it out and holding it towards the remains.

White light streams forth, surrounding the dead woman. It whirls around and then explodes, and the Fire Keeper is back, just as she was before. Even her clothes are back, though I still hold her old set.

"Are you…okay?" I ask her.

"…Th, thank you," she breathes. "I am Anastacia of Astora. Now I can continue my duty as a Keeper…But…I only hope that my impure tongue does not offend."

"Not at all!" I exclaim. "It's everyone's right to be able to speak, don't let people call you impure!" I take a breath, then gently continue, "I'm glad you're back. Here, I have your-"

A whimper cuts me off. "…Forgive me," she whispers. "I am impure, my tongue never intended for restoration…"

"But your-"

"Please, if you have any heart…Leave me be," she begs me. "I wish not to speak…"

I sigh. "Very well. I'll be going, then." And I leave her be.

With no use for her old clothes, I feed them to Frampt, and I get a lot of souls in return. Come to think of it, I can feed him my chain link armor, too, since I'm able to use my preferred armor without being hindered by its weight anymore. The Occult Club, I give to him, as well as the Dragon's Tooth and all of the Havel armor-and-shield set - I like what I've got. This gives me a _lot_ of souls, if not enough to use on myself just yet.

 _Now_ , it's time to finish what I started. I use two of the Humanity sprites I got from Lautrec on the bonfire here in the shrine, which is burning again; I get a full twenty swallows of Estus for my Flask from this, and the fire is enormous. It crackles, the huge flames dancing about…I can almost see her face in the shapes formed by smoke and heat, feel her arms around me as the warmth envelops me. I haven't felt so close to her since I lost her…

But there's no time for that now - it's time to finish what I started in Anor Londo. Re-equipping myself, I turn and march back up to the golden city. As I do, I think of the few headless demons I haven't yet killed…but decide to leave that for another time. Sure, there are a few things I have yet to do, but I want to see what's ahead of me already! I want to see…but…

…but…I'm so _tired_. How long has it been since I last rested? Too long…Whatever's ahead can wait a bit longer. I'm already at the Anor Londo bonfire, but I use one more Humanity sprite to kindle it to full strength, so I can feel so close to her as I sleep. I'm sweaty and filthy, but I don't care; I rest.


	30. Chapter 29

I wake up refreshed - ready, in fact, to go back to Sen's Fortress and finish off the remaining headless demons. My ultimate goal is just ahead of me, so I need to make sure I deserve it.

The flight back is normal, and descending to just above the tar pit is no trouble; I kill the one snake man, swap out my Cloranthy Ring for the rusted iron ring, cast Fall Control, and drop down. A cobra man hits me once with lightning as I enter the passage to where the other two headless demons are; then, I'm all set.

Slowly, I creep out, trying to bait the first monster without drawing the attention of the other. This proves impossible, as hiding behind the corner causes it to shoot lightning at me without pursuing me. Finally, I run out to meet it, though I only take a couple of swings before retreating again. As I ready myself to go back out, I hear what sounds like secondary blasts of lightning hitting the wall - I've alerted the other one. Again, I run out, take a few swings, get hit a couple of times, then run back and drink from my Estus Flask - guerrilla tactics are what will win the day here, I can tell. On the third venture out, I start to wonder if perhaps this running out and back is really necessary, though - the other headless demon seems content shooting lightning at me from a distance and missing, so perhaps I can stay out. Still, I retreat again after a little while just to be safe - my sword is only doing so much damage with each strike, this will not be a quick fight no matter what happens. The fourth time, I'm a bit too reckless, and get badly hurt with only a few more hits on the monster to show for it; retreating back into the passage proves to cause the beast to lose interest. On the fifth run, I get on its left back and start striking. After a little while, it does its jumping attack, thoroughly impaling me on the sticky tar. I die.

When I rise, I'm back in Anor Londo. Yes, I'm not ready for whatever lies ahead; I need to defeat these things first. So I go back again, the journey just as uneventful as before, not even minding that I'm Hollow. I'm a bit more aggressive this time, and while the monster doesn't manage to get a one-hit kill one me again, I do eventually draw the other headless demon over to us, so I have to retreat and wait a while for the coast to be clear again. When I go out again, the beast's attempts to dodge me by jumping back bring us to the other one, so I have to retreat again. Though I wait a while, when I go out again, I find that the headless monster hasn't moved back to its former spot. This time, it comes with me towards the closer end of the room, though, so it only gets dangerous when I'm injured. Out again, and it doesn't go so badly; it gets a direct diving strike on me and I don't die, so I try to retreat. I misjudge where I am, though, and back up into a wall; when I try to course-correct, the monster gets a _second_ diving strike on me, and I die.

On my next trip, the snake man on the way back very nearly kills me. It occurs to me that there are cobra men below me that I've never fought before; perhaps I should drop down on them first? I try it. There are three down here, on this little ledge to nowhere; the first one I engage grabs me in its mouth and throws me to the ground, but apart from that, fighting them is not difficult. There's nothing else here, disappointingly, so I finish the drop and go after the headless demons again. The fight goes well at first, but the second monster manages to sneak up behind me when I again lose track of where I am, and I die with barely enough time to register what happened.

Now I'm annoyed. I go back again; when I reach the snake man, during the fight, I slip off the edge of the bridge before I can even cast Fall Control. I survive, fortunately, and proceed to the headless demons again. Recovering my death spot is my priority, and this, unfortunately, quickly costs me my life.

Trying again. Like last time, I slip fighting the snake man, but this time I die, costing me all the souls I've been gathering. Now I'm really angry. Instead of going back, I decide to go fight the headless monster in the castle - at least that one is alone. It's not until I'm fighting one of the giant armor knights inside that I remember I'm still wearing the rusted iron ring; I manage to kill it anyway, and it drops a chunk of titanite. With a moment to breathe, I put the Cloranthy Ring back on to face the other one - I'm going to kill everything I see. The knight shooting javelins proves annoying, though, and I stop fighting the giant to go up and kill the knight; but I'm not counting on the giant chasing me, and when the knight is near death, I'm suddenly being double-teamed. Shortly thereafter, I slip and fall off the stairs, and as I try to drink from my Estus Flask, a javelin skewers me.

At the bonfire, I take a moment to catch my breath. Charging in without strategy only gets me killed, I need to be more tactical. Sure, I cast a Great Soul Arrow at the first giant last time, but I can - and need to - do better. The regular armor knights outside provide me with some trouble this time, and the first giant armor knight uses some sort of shockwave spell to both hurt me and knock me back; soon, though, I've got a better pattern going. This time, my next step is to get the silver knight, so I run up the stairs, trying to get out of the giant armor knight's reach; it takes a bit of a risk of going along the unguarded edge of the stairs around the knight, but it works, and I kill the silver foe, who drops another javelin-arrow. Only the second giant remains, and with the whole, enormous room to ourselves, it's quite a battle. The giants turn out to also be able to use healing spells, so it drags on a lot longer than it should, but eventually, by being a bit less conservative, I back it against a pillar and kill it.

Next is the headless demon. It's nearby, and easy to find and engage. Instead of making things difficult, the small space of the room actually proves useful - it helps me keep on its back. Whenever I get too injured, I can back out through the small doorway where it can't reach me. It takes a lot of hits, but eventually, I kill it, getting two weird chunks of titanite in reward.

Looking around the room itself, it appears to have once been some sort of church-like area. Unfortunately, there's nothing else here - I try hitting the cloth-covered altar just in case, but it's solid. Still, a victory is nice to have after so much frustration.

I don't want to go back to Sen's Fortress and fight the demons again - I want to know what's ahead of me. It's time. There are only seven swallows of Estus left in my Flask, but I don't really expect to win whatever fight awaits me the first time; I take the stairs up and down and up back to the door with the barrier, and traverse the white light.

In front of me is a big, fat knight wielding a hammer bigger than I am; on a balcony up above and to the right, a gold-clad knight with a spear approaches. When the knight up above jumps down, I realize I'm supposed to fight both of them at once. The knight with the spear lunges across the room with its weapon charged with lightning, while the fat one charges forward like a battering ram with its hammer, giving me barely enough time to get my bearings; I don't manage to land one hit on either of them before they kill me.

Well, this is just wonderful, though I suppose it makes sense that my final obstacle here would be a _duo_ of powerful warriors. Through the fire, I ask her how she did it. She tells me it was difficult, and that it involved a lot of defensive maneuvering, but since the bigger one was slower, she was able to kill it first, then fight the other knight after it absorbed the fat knight's power by being all the more defensive. Basically, defensive maneuvering around the pillars in the room is the key to this fight. With that in mind, I run back to try it. Unfortunately, the armor knights out front slaughter me, costing me all the souls I had when I lost to the knight duo. The thing that throws me off about the armor knights when I fight them is that they attack with long-ranged weapons like the headless demons, but the weapons still work if I'm close to them.

A blank slate now. At least there's nothing really at stake anymore - recovering my death spot gains me nothing, just attracts the attention of a pink demon that can't get through the little gate that leads to the giant smith. I kill the armor knights out front on principle, but I try run past the giant armor knights inside - I don't need to fight them, I only need to reach the door. However, I fail, between the knights' enormous halberds and the one knight shooting javelins at me. It's clear that, if I want to fight that duo again, I need to kill everything outside first - annoying, but necessary.

On the way back to the castle, I take a look at the rotating tower again, the one that links to bridges. The handle goes around in a full 360-degree turn, stopping (presumably) at every ninety degrees; I only pushed it once, and I wonder what happens if I push it again? It shouldn't bring me to any danger, so I try it. I can't remember which way I pushed it last time, so I push it clockwise; this brings me back up. Okay, counterclockwise, once, twice - and yes, it brings me down further, far, far down. What's down here? I'll take a look, then go back up later.

The higher bridge on the rotating tower leads to a building; the inside looks exactly like the one with the mural, white-clad warriors and all - for a minute, I think it's different, but then I get in further and realize that, since the bottom bridge led to this before, the top one leads to it now, so it _is_ the same room. I kill one white-clad warrior inside, and three follow me out; two of them drop two throwing knives each, and I tuck them away. That done, I go back to the rotating tower and descend the stairs, to a point lower than anywhere I've been in Anor Londo before. Peering over the balcony, I see that I'm still nowhere near the ground. The bridge down here leads to a new place: a small round room with a bonfire at the center. Before looking around, I light the bonfire, though I don't rest at it. In front of me is an enormous statue of a warrior with a huge sword, which he holds by the hilt with both hands and stands point-down on the ground…I think, based on the crown the statue is wearing, that it might be a statue of Lord Gwyn. To the left of the statue is a corpse holding a Ring of the Sun's Firstborn.

I examine the ring. It was given to Lord Gwyn's firstborn, the shamed god of war. Interestingly, I think it boosts the strength of Miracles - not too useful to me. It's a simple gold band, almost like the Darkmoon Seance Ring but not quite as smooth; I wonder if there's a connection. Regardless, there's nothing else down here, so I climb back up, put the tower back in the position it was in, and go forward to the castle again.

The first armor knight outside drops its shield after I kill it; it's too big to be practical. Inside, I focus on killing the giant armor knights, catching the attention of the first one by hitting it with a Great Soul Arrow from behind - I remember that I have to focus on being more aggressive so they can't use their healing spells, and that I also have to kill the silver knight up above after killing the first giant so that it won't shoot me. Recovering my previous death spot alerts the other giant, and killing the knight before the giant catches up to me is close, but means I get to do a dropping attack on the enormous foe. The fight goes better this time; during it, I notice something shiny near the entrance, and once it's done, I go back and discover that the first giant dropped its halberd, which is also far too big to be of any practical use.

And now, it's time to traverse the white light again. Use the pillars, I remember. This soon proves to be deceitful, but only slightly - both knights can smash the pillars, but the bases of the pillars stay intact, though both of them have some melee attacks that get through. I soon see what she meant about killing the one with the hammer first being easier - he's big, so he's slow, and his hammer only strikes things a certain distance away from him, so getting close enough to hit him isn't difficult. The knight with the spear does complicate things, but with some caution, I'm able to kill the big one.

When the larger knight falls to the ground, his partner jumps to his side, then respectfully places one hand on the fallen warrior's chest. Then, he starts to get bigger, absorbing the fallen knight's strength into himself; soon, he's bigger than the one that just fell, his spear likewise enlarged. Getting close to this foe is a _lot_ more difficult, as he still wields lightning - including an electric shockwave attack meant specifically to counter the stay-close method - and his weapon hits everything in front of him. After I barely manage to lay one sword swing on him, I decide to try using magic from a distance; this proves more effective, but still hazardous. The fight goes on a bit longer, and my spells aren't doing an insignificant amount of damage, when at one point, as I'm about to die and am taking out my Estus Flask, the monster impales me on his spear, lifts me up into the air, sends a charge of lightning through my body, and flings me to the ground. Quite thoroughly thrashed, I die.

When I rise, I'm back at the raging bonfire with the Fire Keeper knight - I didn't rest at the bonfire I lit down below, so I don't return to it. Just as well, as this one gives me a full twenty swallows of Estus. Now, if nothing else, I know what I'm up against…I wish my drake sword was a bit longer, but there's no help for that. Either way, I take a breath, then go back out again. My goal is so close - I can't rest now.

On the way, it occurs to me that I can gather the souls of the creatures in my way, then use them to buy twinkling titanite from the giant smith, which I can use to reinforce my armor and shield; I want to do better, so I'll try it. The first giant armor knight also drops another chunk of titanite, which I think will be enough to reinforce my boots once more, too. While fighting the silver knight, I slip after getting a few good swings on it; the second giant is already halfway up the stairs, so I worry that I've lost my chance to get rid of the silver knight, but the javelin-shooting fool jumps after me and dies on impact. I'm getting better at fighting the giants.

Outside, I knock the first pink demon off the edge of a building with a Great Soul Arrow onto a buttress, which it promptly falls off. The second demon gives me very little trouble. By now, I have more than 11,000 souls to use with the smithing behemoth; I go in to speak to him.

"Mng, hello," he grunts. "Forge, I can! Strong, I am!"

The titanite chunk I got from the giant armor soldier - the third since I last used them - is indeed enough to reinforce my boots; now, only a full slab of titanite can reinforce them further. Unfortunately, twinkling titanite costs 8,000 souls, and so I can only afford one; I use it on my body armor. Then, there's nothing left for me, so I bid the giant farewell, he encourages me to come back soon, and I return to the castle and traverse the wall of white light once more. I've used six swallows of Estus to get here.

It doesn't go well this time. I manage to recover my death spot, but the big knight's hammer knocks me around with embarrassing ease, and I quickly die. Still, I'm definitely strong enough to block the spear-wielding knight's blows, so my strengthened armor probably is serving me well. Come to think of it, every time I fail, then go back out and kill the monsters in my way, I can buy one more chunk of twinkling titanite…If I die again, I might start doing that. When I fight the armored monsters in my way this time, I get too close to the first giant when trying to ready my spell, and it notices me and blocks the magic with its shield; the silver knight later manages to hit me with a javelin while I climb the stairs towards it - it hasn't ever managed that before. Also, the second giant manages to hit me from below when I'm standing near the top of the stairs. I'm not killed, though, and apart from that, nothing of note happens.

Through the light again; I need to remember to stay on the defensive. This isn't easy, and proves less so the more I try - working together, the knight with the spear throws lightning at me (against which I have very little defense), and the one with the hammer then smashes me before I can recover, thus killing me once more. I _could_ try my idea of getting more twinkling titanite with each loss, but I really just want this to be done with - I want to see what's next.

The silver knight is ready with its sword when I next climb the stairs towards it; but when I'm past it and out of its reach, it draws its bow and starts shooting javelins at me, continuously, even when it's clear that it can't hit me from how far down the stairs it is. Once I get close enough for it to hit me with its bow, it draws its sword again. Apart from that, nothing of consequence happens on the way back to the fight. Once I'm in again, the fight goes a bit better, but the spear knight's habit of running around behind me while I'm occupied with his partner ultimately gets me killed. However, I _am_ getting better - the time I killed the larger one that once was a lucky break, nothing more.

I get another chunk of titanite on the way back from the second giant armor knight. Then, I fight the duo again. The spear knight throws me into the air while still in his smaller form at one point, but this doesn't kill me. This time, I actually manage to kill the larger knight again; when the one with the spear absorbs his fallen comrade's power, I'm in the middle of taking a swig of Estus. For a moment, I think I'm well on my way. At one point, I try shooting the spear knight with magic, and find out that I'm too far away for the spell to hit him; while I try to get closer while also staying on the defensive, it manages to hit me with a huge bolt of electricity, then stab me _through_ the pillar I hide behind. Thus, I die.

This is frustrating…but, the souls I have in there (I've been recovering my death spot every time) should be more than enough to use by now. It would be difficult to use something to take them out with me again, though - I have a Homeward Bone, but those take some time to use. I suppose I could always go back and buy a Ring of Sacrifice from Oswald of Carim…and, come to think of it, if magic is going to be the thing that defeats the spear knight, maybe I should purchase some more spells, too. This, she tells me through the fire, is a good idea - it's what she did, the thing that saved her. So I will.

But I'm tired. I really want to see what comes after this battle…but I can't do it like this. I need to rest. And so I do.


	31. Chapter 30

When I rise, I have one mission: Get a Ring of Sacrifice. I need to get it, then make it back here, then back to the knight duo, without dying once. A tall order, but not an impossible one. _After_ that, I'll go back to Firelink Shrine and learn some spells from Big Hat Logan. Come to think of it, I shouldn't use my souls on myself until I've exhausted every other resource I intend to gather.

On the way back, I misjudge the location of one of the swinging blades in Sen's Fortress, and it hits me - but by some miracle, I'm knocked back, and into a safe place, instead of being thrown off. Nothing else of note happens; I need to go out of my way to kill some Hollows, but that's not difficult, though I wouldn't have needed to go _quite_ so far out of my way if I'd just parry-and-riposted more of them (I have to kill _everything_ in the parish, on every route, _and_ go back and kill one of the snake men in Sen's Fortress). Oswald indicates surprise at noticing that I'm still Hollow, but I don't pay much attention to him. While I'm up here, though, I also decide to abandon the Forest Hunter Covenant - I have no intention of returning to Darkroot Garden. Just wearing the Ring of Sacrifice makes me feel a bit more secure, though not being able to wear the Cloranthy Ring is somewhat limiting. The return to Anor Londo brings with it no surprises or challenges.

Now I'm ready to go back - I will of course try to win against the duo again when I reach them, but this time, if I don't, I'll be able to do something about it before I try again. Unfortunately, the first armor knight outside the castle kills me, so I have to go back to the Undead parish again; I have souls this time, so getting another ring won't be as challenging. I know I can do this - if nothing else, I _have_ to. Another relatively uneventful trip - the knight near the top of the fortress gives me a shard of titanite, the third dart at the bottom passes both snake men to hit me, a Hollow gives me some junk for Frampt, an accidental jumping attack gets me whacked with a couple of broken swords wielded by ragged Hollows, the crossbow-wielding Hollow gives me another shard of titanite _and_ some junk for Frampt on the way back up - and I'm ready to try again, hopefully reaching my goal this time.

It's so variable how these things go, I'm almost inclined to chalk it up to luck - I slaughter the armor knights outside this time, but the fight inside with the first giant proves difficult, and when I try to back away to take a drink from my Estus Flask, one of the pink demons comes literally out of nowhere and lightning-spears me. The only thing this attempt got me was enough souls to buy another ring…maybe, if it ever becomes possible, I should buy two. One way or another, though, this trial is absurd - I just want my souls back!

Yet another titanite shard comes to me from the Hollow up top with the crossbow; the dart trap actually kills one of the snake men, and I slaughter the other. Just because I can, I take a quick trip down to Firelink Shrine to feed my trash to Frampt; this isn't enough for two rings, not even with the souls I get for another piece of junk one of the ragged Hollows near the top of the chapel gives me, but it's close, and another trip will probably mean I'll have enough (since I have enough souls for another by the time I make it back to Anor Londo), though I very much hope it doesn't come to that.

This time, when the opportunity arises (after I kill the first armor knight), I kill the pink demon that always comes running at me from behind the gate - I'm not sure how it made it through to me last time, but I'm not taking any more chances. With the first giant, I use its habit of jumping after attacking (which I normally find annoying) to my advantage, as it's very vulnerable when it's in the air, and kill it without too much trouble. However, when the time comes to get the silver knight out of the way, the second giant catches up to me before I can do anything, and it hits me so that I fall off the stairs; the silver knight jumps after me and strikes me, and I die. However, I already have more than enough souls for two rings now, so maybe things might go a bit better in the future.

Actually, between feeding Frampt, parry-and-riposting one strong Hollow, and going a little bit out of my way to bag a few more Hollows, I have enough souls to buy _three_ rings by the time I reach Oswald, and of course, I do. A snake man gives me its greatsword on the way back, which I will naturally feed to Frampt; apart from that, it's in and out. Actually, as I take the cage lift, it occurs to me that, using Fall Control, I could skip the snake man on the narrow bridge and the swinging blades by jumping down (if I'm exiting the fortress), since the headless demons are in the next room over. Oh well; as always, I hope I won't have to use that insight until after I've reclaimed the souls that are still in the room with the two knights. At least, I hope they're still there - after several deaths, even revived by a Ring of Sacrifice each time, does the old death spot still stay? I guess I'll find out.

When fighting the first armor knight this time, I alert the second, and it takes some maneuvering on the stairs to get the first one alone again. Again, I remember to kill the pink demon, this time after defeating the second armor knight. While fighting the first giant inside, though, it knocks me down, then swings at me before I have a chance to recover, and the first of my three rings is used. No matter, I put on my second one and try again.

The pink demon loses interest in me by the time I'm done with the outside armor knights this time; I wait by the gate for a minute to make sure, but it's gone back to its post and won't be pursuing me. Hoping this is a good sign, I proceed. With a bit of a fight, I kill the first giant; once that's done, it occurs to me to try casting Hidden Body to maybe keep the second giant from pursuing me while I go after the silver knight. This turns out to work better than a charm - even the silver knight doesn't notice me until I'm hitting it with my blade. I then lure the giant over, get a drop attack on it, and when it's so badly hurt that it tries to heal itself, I go in and kill it just before its spell works. At last, the path to the room is open; I just hope my death spot is still there.

It is. It's not easy to get to, but I manage. Since I'm here, I also start attacking the large knight; this works well at first, but eventually, I get into a pattern of being knocked around by his hammer, and after a while, I die. That's okay, I have what I wanted. Now, it's time to head back one last time so I can get more spells from Logan.

I get another titanite shard on the way down - the crossbow-wielder at the top of Sen's Fortress is remarkably good for those. There _are_ still things in this fortress I haven't discovered; I think I'll look around. Primarily, she tells me that that hole I noticed long ago that I didn't trust is actually safe, and leads to something; I trust her. The snake man on the bridge at the bottom of the cage lift jumps, not to its death, and I let it go.

Some climbing is required to get back to where the hole was. On the way up, I notice something gleaming on a ledge beside the stairs that stumped Siegmeyer (though, interestingly, no boulders come this time); I drop down and find a shotel - a sharp blade meant to hit through raised shields. This isn't a bad weapon, but I have mine. When I drop down a second time, I find Siegmeyer still sitting where he was, muttering about rolling. There _was_ a mechanism to change where the boulder went up ahead; maybe I'll go fix it so he can get on his way - though, again, boulders simply aren't rolling this way right now.

When I get to where the boulders are falling, I notice what looks like a route I haven't looked at before. I take it, since boulders aren't rolling that way, and I find some stairs that go up to a short bridge between what appears to be the outsides of two cells - there are iron bar walls, at any rate. The door in the gate to the left is open, revealing stairs that lead down to a grate floor and a lift rising up and going down through a square hole that looks like the one I've been seeking. I wonder…

As the lift comes back up, I get on it. It's not until after that that I notice the blood splattered all over it; after a moment's hesitation, it flies up into some long, sharp spikes pointing down from the wall, impaling me. Luckily, I don't die. Then it takes me down - down, down, into another room with a treasure chest. I figure this must be my reward for finding this place, so I don't check it before I go to open it. This is a mistake; the chest is actually a mimic monster, and it grabs me, pulls me into its mouth, and eats me.

Back to the bonfire in Anor Londo. Okay. I'll put on my sole remaining Ring of Sacrifice just to be safe, then return to the fortress to try that again. Yet another titanite shard is gained from the crossbow-wielding Hollow for my troubles; I wish it would stop doing that, I have no use for the small shards anymore, at least as far as I know…I'll keep them anyway, but doubt I'll use them. On the way back through the fortress after I get to the bottom, I fight a cobra-man; it slips off the edge of its bridge as I swing, and I fall after it, dying - it's a good thing I put on that ring. I don't have any more left, though, so I need to not mess this up this time. Maybe I just won't bother taking the lift.

This idea is as good as any, so I try it; I slip off a bridge as I try to climb down, bringing myself past the way to the lift, anyway, so it's just as well. Slipping off narrow bridges is becoming a bit of a problem, though. The two pressure plates for the dart trap just at the bottom of the stairs surprise me, and I get hit a couple of times; the bridge this way is incredibly narrow, I'd forgotten just how narrow…seeing it, I lose my nerve, and after killing the cobra man, decide to take the lift instead. It's as I go back to do this, however, that I find that square hole that I was looking for. This is pretty high up, though…I'm not sure I trust it, and I can't take chances with over 60,000 souls on the line.

When I get down and start climbing back up, I see that Siegmeyer is still sitting there. I remember I was going to see if I could send the boulders some direction that won't be in anyone's way; I'll do that before I go down again. Upon inspection, turning the contraption ninety degrees clockwise should send the boulder falling down into nothingness, so before I go on my way, I do so; I hope the poor fool eventually finds his way up.

The trap-lift is a conundrum: It only stops for passengers on the way up to the spikes - trying to get on it as it drops down is suicide, since it drops as fast as a person falls. I choose to get impaled, as it's far from lethal. Then, I recover my death spot, take a swig from my Estus Flask, and swing my blade at the fake treasure chest. Since I'm not caught by surprise this time, the fight is easy, and after the creature falls, it drops a spear already imbued with the power of lightning. I'm not sure if I should hold onto this or feed it to Frampt…I'll think about it later.

There _is_ another stone passageway down here; it leads to the bottom of a ramp that the boulders can follow, presumably the one I came down on the way. However, I turn out to be wrong about this - it's the bottom half of the path I normally take to climb up to the boulder contraption. Having come full-circle all the same, I continue going up, looking for the nearest square hole. Up some stairs and across a narrow bridge with four close-set swinging blades takes me to a balcony with a hole at one end; I cast Fall Control and drop down. The drop turns out to not even be remotely close to perilous, and after a couple more similarly harmless drops, I find an open space with a corpse hanging off an edge that's open to the tar pits below. This corpse is carrying a Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring - a ring that completely silences all of a person's sounds. Combined with Hidden Body, this is a useful tool.

I noticed a snake man down here, but it was on a ledge a little ways down in one of two rectangular holes in the middle of this area, and it's gone now. Further inspection shows that a series of drops down ledges leads to the tar pits below - specifically, the area with the two corpses where one of the headless demons was lurking. This, I think, is enough exploration; I slog through the tar and climb the ladder. On the way up, though, I'm stopped by a snake man holding still in the middle. I punch it from below, and it kicks at me; I drop down, and it follows. I kill it easily once we're both on the ground. Then I try to climb up again, only to find yet another snake man. After punching this one and dropping down, it lets go of the ladder, and falls to its death. There shouldn't be any more snake men on this ladder; I try a third time, finally get to the top, and leave. The two remaining snake men near the entrance don't provide too much of a challenge, and one drops its greatsword after it falls; I take it and proceed, returning to Firelink Shrine.

Here, I feed my junk to Frampt first. I decide to keep the spear, just in case; however, some old armor that I've been holding onto really should go - my original set, the pieces of the Elite Knight set that I'm not using, and the pieces of the Eastern set that I'm not using. My old suit holds only sentimental value, and the others, nothing at all; I might as well get souls for them. What I'm wearing now is _my_ armor - I've poured a lot of resources into the pieces, I won't be trading them out. I also decide to feed him the draconian greataxe I got from the monstrosity in the sewers - it's just not a practical weapon to use, and being from a dragon, Frampt's feeding on it gives me a tremendous rush of souls. Then, I rest for a moment at the raging bonfire, before finally returning to Big Hat Logan.

"Hello there," he says. "What have you been up to? I thought perhaps you'd gone Hollow on me. So, have you come to further your study of sorcery?"

"I have," I reply.

I get Homing Soulmass without a second's thought. The more powerful versions of both Soul Arrow and Great Soul Arrow, I also get. Even after this, I can technically afford Soul Spear, but as much as I'd like to wield it, my own soul isn't ready to make use of the spell's power. These will have to do.

"I will remain here for the time being," Logan informs me as I bid him farewell. "Speak to me again to further your knowledge."

"I shall," I tell him, and then I go.

Enough souls remain within me to strengthen myself once - just once. I use them, then start attuning more magic. Being able to only have five spells on-hand at a time is just barely enough for all my offensive spells, and I still need to use Hidden Body to get to the knights again. There's nothing for it; I take off the Cloranthy Ring and don the Darkmoon Seance Ring. With this, I then attune the spell, and head back to Anor Londo.

Fighting my way through my various foes isn't all that different, though using Heavy Great Soul Arrow to attract the attention of the first giant is pretty fun, as it does nearly three times as much damage. It's when it's down to me and the last giant that things get interesting: After some maneuvering, as it tries to reach me and I try to get into a position to shoot a spell at it, it drops down off the landing, and I start casting magic at it. Four Heavy Great Soul Arrows kill it, though it does somehow manage to land one hit on me from far below me. Once it's dead, however, I'm all but out of uses of that spell, _and_ I have enough souls to strengthen myself a bit further. But I also don't want to run all the way back across Anor Londo right now…so I'll just use that other bonfire I discovered - maybe the time it would take to get there and back is about the same because of the need to wait for the tower rising and falling, but at least it feels closer.

Back on the tower, I turn the wheel counterclockwise, descend the stairs, and cross the bridge to the bonfire room. When I do, however, the Darkmoon Seance Ring heats up on my finger, and the statue I noticed before disintegrates right before my eyes, revealing a staircase. Momentarily forgetting what I was doing and drawn by the sound of something like howling wind coming from the opening, I descend, and find a carpet with four candles arranged in a square around the far end, just beyond which is a door blocked by white light.

"Halt!" says a gentle but male voice as I approach. "This is the tomb of the Great Lord Gwyn. Tarnished, it shall not be, by the feet of men. If thou art a true disciple of the Dark Sun, cast aside thine ire, hear the voice of mineself, Gwyndolin, and kneel before me."

"Cast aside my ire? _Kneel_?" I repeat. "Never!" I step on the sun design in the middle of the four candles, consider things for a moment, then turn and go. Shrugging off this discovery, I sit down at the little bonfire to restore my spells, strengthen myself with the souls I've gathered, then rise and return to the castle, thinking as I turn the wheel clockwise and wait for it to finish rotating. Gwyndolin…the Darkmoon deity, the last born son of Lord Gwyn; I thought all the deities had gone from Anor Londo, but apparently not. Even she didn't know about this. I wonder what, if anything, this will mean for the future.

Regardless, it's time to storm the castle, for real this time - I am ready. I don't waste my offensive spells on the way this time - once I've killed the first of the outside armor knights, I cast Hidden Body, run through the doorway around the other, and sneak around the right-hand edge of the great hall to the doorway, casting the spell a second time as I go just to be safe. The giants notice me, but not in time to stop me.

Killing the fat knight is neither easy nor difficult; after the second knight absorbs its powers, the fight becomes…even, if nothing else. Once I'm properly set, I start casting magic at it. All twenty uses of Great Soul Arrow damage it badly, Homing Soulmass proves all but useless, and switching to Heavy Great Soul Arrow seems like it will win the day for me. It's close, very close - when at one point, I'm certain I'm dead, but manage to get up and take a swig from my Estus Flask, I feel like there's no way I can fail. But, in the end, while trying to cast a Heavy Great Soul Arrow (which takes more time, as befitting its greater power), the monster's enormous spear skewers me, and I fall.

It was close, far too close to give up now. First, however, I will need to go back to the other bonfire to fully restore my Estus - I used a lot during that fight, the five swallows I get from this little fire won't do. I have to pull the lever that's down here to call the tower back, too…stopping at this fire wasn't the best idea, in hindsight - the best thing that came of it was discovering Gwyndolin, and I'm not sure what use that will ever turn out to be. When I reach the raging bonfire that gives me twenty swallows of Estus, it also occurs to me that, since Homing Soulmass has proved useless (for this situation, at least), I might as well un-attune that one and take off the Darkmoon Seance Ring to use the Cloranthy Ring. Neither of the things I did to find Gwyndolin were things it was in my best interest to do. Well, I couldn't have known that before.

On the way in this time, I don't bother fighting anything - using Hidden Body gets me past everything without me getting hit, and that's all I need. When I try to recover my death spot, however, I'm instantly slaughtered. Oh well, it's not like I lost anything really useful. Trying again, with slightly better results this time - I die killing the bigger knight. It's when I have to fight both at once that things are difficult now; once I kill the first one, I know I can handle the second one. Not needing to worry about recovering my death spot no matter how many times I die is a nice reprieve. Get halfway up the first stairs, cast the spell, run past the armor knights outside, stop in the right-hand corner of the inside of the great hall, wait for the spell to wear off, cast it again, and run to the wall of light. This is a reliable pattern, and I'm glad I found it.

Try number three sees me knocked back and forth between the knights - I get some good hits on the fat one, but I don't manage to kill him before I die. It's the spear knight that's the problem - I can't swing at the big one without the nimble one hitting me. Having been so close, though, I can't give up.

On my fourth try, I manage to kill the big knight without much trouble; when it's one-on-one, I also seem to have the upper hand. However, a double-hit of cheap shots - I can't even recover from one before the other comes - knocks me out all at once.

This _is_ possible, I came so close…but I wonder, right now, if maybe some rest would do me good. I lie down just as this thought crosses my mind; her warmth envelops me, and I sleep.


	32. Chapter 31

Rested and refreshed, I rise to try again. Nothing happens on the way. Once I'm in the fight, with a bit of careful maneuvering, I manage to kill the first knight. While fighting the second, it at one point starts throwing lightning at me that can't hit me through the pillar base I'm hiding behind; meanwhile, I continuously shoot Great Soul Arrows at it. I cast all twenty uses of the spell like this, and wonder if maybe I'm going to succeed this time. Casting Heavy Great Soul Arrows takes a few seconds each, but the damage it inflicts is worth it. My mistake comes in trying to cast a Heavy Great Soul Arrow during a point when I simply don't have time; I get knocked to the ground, impaled, lifted into the air, electrified, and flung down again. I die.

It's not a difficult mistake to make, not being cautious enough about spellcasting - even if I think I have enough time, I need to think I have _more_ than enough time before raising my catalyst. With that in mind, I go back and try again. This time, the fight starts off with an electric bolt rather than a melee attack, and this proves a bad omen - I'm knocked back and forth between the two knights and quickly slaughtered.

Is it just chance? My skill isn't changing; being able to fight the big one while avoiding the nimble one seems to be a matter of pure luck. Annoyed, I go back - if it is luck, then I should eventually win, so long as I keep trying. The fight goes well this time; killing the larger knight is becoming easier. While fighting the second knight, however, once I manage to lure it into a position where it's shooting lightning at me in vain (a safe situation in which to attack with magic), I discover that it's too far away for my spells to hit. In hopes of getting a better vantage point, I come out from behind the middle pillar base of the three - the one that's protecting me - to dodge to the one to my right; as I do this, the knight shoots a bolt of seeking lightning at me, and though I try to evade it, it hits me with incomprehensible force, knocking me out all at once. _One_ mistake kills me against this thing.

My fourth time, while it's difficult, I take down the first knight and am left one-on-one with the other. I stop taking obvious risks - tiny risks, occasionally, but rarely. The first priority is to always make sure there's at least one pillar base between me and him, no matter what else. This means a lot of running backwards, and sometimes, I get impatient. When I get a chance to cast all my Great Soul Arrows, a few of them don't hit him; when I later get a chance to use Heavy Great Soul Arrows, this doesn't happen, but I've lost a lot of ground. At the moment when I've exhausted my Heavy Great Soul Arrows, I'm still in a position where it's safe to use magic, so I cast a regular Heavy Soul Arrow, then try a few standard Soul Arrows. One of the former and three of the latter later, the enormous knight falls.

At last.

I only get the special soul of the second knight to fall: Dragonslayer Knight Ornstein, one of the four knights of Lord Gwyn. So I…just killed a legendary knight. Yes, I'm worthy of succeeding Lord Gwyn, indeed. In addition, I get another Humanity sprite, and as I walk through the rubble from the smashed pillars, I notice something gleaming where Ornstein fell, which I pick up; it's the Leo Ring, the one that belonged to him as one of the four knights of Lord Gwyn. Now, I have the full set.

First, I swap my catalyst back out for my sword, just in case. Then, and only then, do I start looking around. There were two walls of white light blocking archways on either side of the far wall; these, it turns out, are to elevators, and I take the one to my right. As I do so, I finally notice the lovely pattern on the tiles that floor this room - tasteful and elegant.

When I step off the lift, I find myself up on the balcony where I first saw Ornstein. I wonder what his partner's name was…in any case, there turns out to be a bonfire up here; I absorb one of the two Humanity sprites I have on me, light the fire, sit down, and use it - if ever I deserved to be un-Hollowed, it's now. Even though I have plenty, I don't use the souls I got from my victory just yet; first, I want to see what I've won.

Past the bonfire is a wide set of stairs leading to a closed set of doors flanked by urns. I put away my weapons and remove my helm, then slowly ascend the stairs and open the doors, which turn out to be bronze or some such metal. They're heavy, but I push them open using all my strength. What I find beyond is a giant woman - not fat, but simply several times the size of a normal human - lying on her left side on an equally enormous seat, her crossed arms propped up on a pillow, her white robes elegantly wrapped around her, her breasts almost bare. Behind her, bright sunlight shines through a window, making it difficult to see her face. Reverently, I approach.

"Thou hast journey'd far, and overcome much, chosen Undead," she says in a gentle voice. "Come hither, child…"

The carpet in this room is red and soft, and somehow, I know she's waiting for me to kneel before her. It takes a moment to bend my pride enough to do so, but kneel I do, with reverence and respect for this deific being.

"O chosen Undead. I am Gwynevere. Daughter of Lord Gwyn; and Queen of Sunlight," she tells me, and for a moment, I'm stunned. "Since the day Father his form did obscureth, I have await'd thee," she continues. Then, she hands out an enormous golden bowl, and says, "I bequeath the Lordvessel to thee."

I take it. Its power absorbs into me, so there's no need to carry it normally. As this happens, I feel a bit of connection to the Fire; I can transport myself between bonfires now, take journeys with her, just like before…

"And beseech thee," Gwynevere goes on after I've taken the powerful tool. "Succeed Lord Gwyn, and inheriteth the Fire of our world. Thou shall endeth this eternal twilight, and avert further Undead sacrifices."

"I shall," I say, and I stand. I want to ask her some things, but it seems she won't speak to me unless I kneel. Not too annoyed, I kneel down again.

"O chosen Undead," she says. "Thou hath journey'd far."

"I have," I agree. "I'm still unsure of what this journey's purpose is, though. Will you tell me more?"

"Since the day Father his form did obscureth, I have await'd thee," she tells me again. "Once living, now Undead, and a fitting heir to father Gwyn thou art, and beseech thee succeed Lord Gwyn, and inheriteth the Fire of our world. A grave and arduous test of mettle, yea, it shall be. Indeed we had felt the warmth of Fire, its radiance, and the life it sustaineth. Without Fire, all shall be a frigid and frightful Dark."

"But what does that mean, to inherit the Fire?" I press.

"Please. Father's role thou should assume, and inheriteth the Fire of our world," she repeats. "Thou shall endeth this eternal twilight, and avert further Undead sacrifices. Kingseeker Frampt, the primordial serpent, shall guide thee."

"Frampt, huh?" I stand. "I will ask him."

"Now thou shalt go forth, chosen Undead," she says. "May thou be one with the sunlight forevermore."

I say nothing in response, merely turn my back and walk away. What a remarkably single-minded being for a child of the Great Lord Gwyn. I wonder if she even knows anything at all…

Even the low-burning bonfire outside the queen's room feels different now; I can look into it, and see various places I've been - not everywhere, far from it, but some places. One such place is Firelink Shrine. Smiling, I reach out a hand, and allow the flames to pull me in.

As the fire takes me, I can feel her hand holding mine; passing through the aether with her by my side is heavenly, and I can almost see her smiling at me. A thought, a memory, flits from her mind to mine: Kingseeker Frampt taking her into his mouth to bring her down to where the Lordvessel goes, the grossness of it all. I also see what I'm supposed to do next: Gather powerful souls to fill the Lordvessel. Some of them lie behind the walls of golden light I've come across here and there, but one place lies beneath the New Londo Ruins - Ingward gave her the key to drain the city when she came to him with the Lordvessel. This, she didn't need to place the Lordvessel to do. I'm already gross enough without being partially swallowed by a primordial serpent, so I decide to go for this _before_ speaking to Kingseeker Frampt about the Lordvessel.

Then, I'm back at the Firelink Shrine. Before anything else, I decide to actually go to the hydra lake in the forest to clean up - I'm filthy. _Then_ , I'll go down to the New Londo Ruins and speak to Ingward. I sit right back down and transport myself to the bonfire above Andre's forge. Being able to warp between bonfires is not just wonderful because of her, it's also objectively convenient - between one thing and another, I doubt I'll ever tire of it.

The cool humidity of the forest is soothing after all the work I've been doing, and killing the two plant monsters and four crystal golems along the way is so painfully easy, I don't even put my helm back on - one two-handed light strike kills the plant monsters, and _three_ heavy swings of my sword kills each of the crystal golems. Elated, I jump into the lake; I roll around in my armor for a while, washing it off, then strip down and start jumping and splashing about before stopping under a waterfall.

After a minute, I climb out and jog down to the bonfire in the cave - any bonfire will do, now that I can move between them at will. I do use my souls now to strengthen myself a bit further; then I stand up, re-dress myself, and sit down and hold out a hand into the fire again. She takes hold of me, and brings me back to the Firelink Shrine - even though I can't use this power to bring me to the particular bonfire I came from, I can go anywhere _from_ it just the same. No, I will never tire of this.

Back in Firelink Shrine, I immediately head down to the New Londo Ruins. I know where Ingward is, from the time she tricked me into seeking him to break the curse on myself, so this will not be a difficult journey; I even ignore the harmless ragged Hollows along the way. I have four cursed arms to get me through here; I use one before I reach the ruins proper, then charge in. The ghosts fall before my blade _so_ easily, and their own blades do very little damage to me in return; I don't even need to be careful, charging into a room full of ghosts doesn't even half-kill me. I miss a doorway and trigger the first banshee by mistake, but even though it chases me after I turn around and go back - and proves to be able to use lightning - I cut it down with ease once it catches up. None of the ghosts pose a threat; towards the end of the narrow bridges, all the injures leading to this point have added up, but the one remaining ghost doesn't kill me when it basically has the chance, and I heal myself and destroy it. The biggest problem comes when my first curse wears off in the middle of a fight with a group of ghosts; I manage to back up, use another, and go out again. Magic, also, overwhelms them easily - two Great Soul Arrows slay them. One ghost inside drops two more cursed arms for me to use. When I get to the ladder in the fireplace, I remember that ghosts are waiting in the walls here, so I climb until I hear a sound, then drop down and kill the two that come after me. Then, at last, I climb up to Ingward.

I remove my helmet and put away my weapons. "Greetings," I say proudly.

He turns to me. "Oh, hello," he says. A quick glance at me is all it takes for him to notice what I'm carrying. "I see you have the Lordvessel. Very impressive. I know exactly what your intentions are. You seek the Four Kings whom I guard over. This is the key to the seal." He hands me an ancient key, greenish in color. "The Four Kings slumber in the deepest chamber of the ruins," he tells me. "Use this key to break the seal and open the floodgates…Oh and do not forget…The Darkwraiths reside in a dark void called the Abyss. But the Abyss is no place for ordinary mortals. Although long ago, the knight Artorias traversed the Abyss. If you can find him, and learn from him, the Abyss may prove surmountable."

Artorias. I found him, killed his wolf companion. What did I get while I was there? That ring, that tiny ring. Do I need to wear this ring in order to traverse the Abyss? Yes, she tells me, yes I do. I nod my thanks and leave; not only do I have to find the gate, there's more space in the ruins even while flooded for me to explore. The curse wore off while I was talking to Ingward, so I use another, then descend the ladder to continue exploring.

Around a corner I only noticed during this trip is another hallway. Some shapes I notice at the far end that I don't recognize are simply another ghost mostly hidden in the wall until I get to it; it doesn't manage to hurt me much before I destroy it simply by swinging my blade into the stone. Another left turn brings me to a shorter hallway with a corpse bearing a large soulmass at the end and a ghost hidden in the ceiling. I try to lure the ghost down, then give up and simply blast it with magic just before it comes into the range of my blade anyway.

Passing through a doorway beyond the corpse I just found and dropping down to a staircase, I completely lose sense of where I am. Climbing down the stairs leads me back outside, at the bottom of a crumbled staircase that I couldn't have crossed any other way. Up some more stairs is a corpse bearing a medium soulmass; down some stairs into a tower mostly submerged in water leads to a corpse carrying a green shard of titanite. Going back to where the corpse with the medium-sized soulmass was, I discover that the ledge it was on actually extends quite a ways, all the way into a tower past some stairs leading away to my right. I go into the tower first, and find the chains of a lift; I pull the lever to call it, but it doesn't move. There's a set of stairs spiraling around the inside of this tower, though, and I go down a ways until I reach a locked gate. The key Ingward gave me opens the gate, and on the other side is a rotating contraption with a lever. Without thinking, I turn it ninety degrees clockwise, and the bars on enormous gates next to me, so big that I didn't notice them before, slide into the wall. The doors then open, and all the water in this place drains out through them; New Londo is now free to explore in full.

There's a lot more exploring to do - I'm going to go up the stairs outside that I noticed earlier first. Surely, I can call the lift now, and I'll do that when I come back. The stairs turn out to lead only to a long ledge, at the end of which is a corpse bearing a single Humanity sprite; the spiral stairs inside the tower also lead a bit further up, which takes me to a set of balconies on either side of a wall, a doorway between the balconies allowing me access to where a corpse carrying a composite bow and sixteen large arrows rests. After that, I go back up the outside stairs - to my right is a rooftop I can easily jump to, and I want to see if anything's there. There is: A corpse bearing a Rare Ring of Sacrifice hangs off one corner of the building. There are also some doorways here, so I go inside; this takes me to the room just before the room with the fireplace that leads to where Ingward is standing. Alright, I think that's everything.

Now, at last, I go back to the tower, intending to use the lever to call the lift up from the no-longer-submerged part of the ruined city so it can bring me down there. On the way, though, I do notice some other paths I didn't take; one brings me to a small ledge with a corpse and a ghost, which I need to use another cursed arm for before I can fight it; hitting it after blocking it with my shield defeats it in one strike, leaving me making a second swing into thin air. A Cursebite Ring on the corpse is my reward. Going up the stairs that confused me before actually brings me right back to the path to Ingward; this means there's now truly nothing else to find up here, so I finally go to the lift, call it up, and descend into the depths.

Everything down here is damp, and covered in green ooze - not unexpected for a place that's been underwater for so long. Slimy piles of half-rotted corpses carpet about half of the floor, the cloying smell of wet rotted flesh making it almost impossible to breathe. The first thing I do is turn the corner to look to my right out the gates that just opened, and I'm surprised to see a few blue drakes with their backs to me. This is the same group of drakes I decided not to challenge in the valley…I wonder if I can take them on now? After deliberating for a moment, I decide to leave it for the time being.

I cross to an open doorway and pass through, finding more slimy piles of dead people. Suddenly, a dark knight - not a black knight, just an oddly dark one - is attacking me. Fighting him is interesting; he has a sort of ghost shield, like a black force field, and sometimes, his hand glows, and he grabs in front of him. One time, he catches me, and he brings me close and starts sucking at my life force - the place in my chest where spare humanities usually burn feels like it's being vacuumed inside-out. There's nothing there, so he only takes most of my health - nothing Estus can't fix. I keep fighting him, and then kill him; he drops a chunk of titanite.

There's something strange about the dead body at my feet. Long, ratty black hair flows from his head, and his armor is different from anything I've seen before. More than that, though, I feel an odd sort of kinship with him, whoever he was. I wonder…

More damp rock and slimy piles of corpses are ahead of me; I climb some stairs, look around some corners, and find very little. It's so dark down here, and I don't have Cast Light attuned - it's a bit bothersome. Still, I make it into a building made of rotten wood instead of stone, through some doors, down some hallways, and I find a more-intact corpse bearing a large soulmass, immediately followed by another dark knight in a room to my left. I get a good look at his face this time, and I see that it's actually the visage of a skull - though it's probably a mask, not the knight's actual face. There's a doorway blocked by white light past him, so after I kill him, I traverse it, and it vanishes behind me.

The place I've come to makes me feel very uneasy - it's a wide, enclosed space, like the inner courtyard of the Northern Undead Asylum, with plenty of room for all sorts of creatures to be lying in wait for me in the dark. I take it step by step, my shield raised, and soon, another dark knight comes charging out at me. This one goes down pretty easily - these knights aren't really all that much of a threat, at least when taken one at a time. All the same, I proceed with almost as much caution once he's down.

Suddenly, from somewhere to my right, an enormous leglike spike catches my shield. I look to my right, then all around, but I don't see anything. Looking to my right again, squinting at the darkness, I finally make out movement, as a floating head like what I saw down in the Catacombs rises out of…something. The thing then comes out from behind some rubble, and I can kind of see it - it's a pitch-black pile of ooze, the details of which are indistinguishable. When it begins to vomit black goop at me, I take out my catalyst and start shooting it with my remaining uses of Great Soul Arrow, backing up again and again so its sludge bombs don't hit me. It conjures two more floating heads in the meantime, and when I run forward to trigger them, their explosions prove not to damage it. When I run out of Great Soul Arrows, I use a few Heavy Great Soul Arrows, three to be precise. Then I run up to it and start swinging my sword, trying to make out what it is as I do so; even when it roars and disintegrates, I can't tell much of anything about it.

So there are more monstrosities down here than just these skull knights. With this in mind, I proceed out again, focusing on first detonating that remaining floating head, which I manage without harm - the explosion also provides the briefest glimpse of the world around, if not enough to make use of. I run back to regroup, then cautiously go out again - I won't feel safe until I've reached the other end of this space unmolested.

Walking slowly, I reach the doorway at the other end of the space without incident. This leads to some stairs that go down to a place where the frigid water is still ankle-high. I jog through it, and am soon met by another skull knight that runs down a few steps to join me in the pond. I'm too reckless with how I fight him, though, and I die.

Interestingly, when I rise again - Hollowed, of course - I'm at the bonfire near the lake, not the one at Firelink Shrine - apparently, teleporting to a bonfire doesn't register one's position at the destination. What's interesting about this is that the lift to the valley of drakes is just ahead of me - if I can fight my way through those blue monsters, I can get back to where I was without having to go through the haunted section of New Londo. If I can manage it, it would be much easier, so I decide to try it, if carefully.

The lift is still down, and I have to call it back up; once down, I proceed with much caution - drakes are dangerous, even the smallest ones. This proves prudent, as even the first, lone drake is a challenge to say the least. I wish I had better defense against lightning…ah well. For a minute, I debate using the Rare Ring of Sacrifice I found in the upper ruins, but ultimately decide against it - it won't help me get through here, and if I die, I'll just be right back where I started anyway. The second drake really seems to love flying short distances while breathing lightning at the ground, and this provides quite a challenge even in more open areas, as it makes riding the monster's back a bit more difficult. All the same, I kill it too. Now the bridge across the valley is clear, even if a team of drakes awaits me on the other side; I take a drink of Estus just to be safe, then proceed slowly, shield raised, catalyst ready to cast a spell from a distance if the need arises.

Near a corpse on the far end of the bridge, I stop to count; I see four blue drakes in a group ahead of me. I approach the corpse slowly, and just before I'm close enough to pillage it, one of the drakes comes stomping towards me. Blocking its lightning and swooping attacks, I try to back off to the other end of the bridge, but by the time I reach the other side, it starts backing off, apparently satisfied at having chased me out of its territory. The meaning is clear: I must fight it on the bridge. Undeterred, I lure it back out, and start doing so. Staying on its back proves a bit difficult, as it keeps a bit close to the side of the bridge that has enough bricks left to be functional as a wall, but I guess that's better than it keeping closer to the side of the bridge I can fall off. Its bites are the most dangerous thing in close quarters like this, but eventually, I kill it. The corpse on the bridge that is my reward is wearing a set of brigand clothes and carrying a spider shield - more food for Frampt.

Three drakes remain. Or…is it actually two? The space where they're waiting is in a huge shadow, so maybe I mistook one of their wings for a fourth drake…I take out my binoculars to get a better look, and more or less confirm that there are indeed only two left. Not that that'll be an easy fight - I still have to try to lure one of them away, and they're both an equal distance away from me; on top of this, drakes get annoyed at things that are further away than the range of a spell.

With no other option, I walk forward slowly. As it turns out, one of the drakes must be closer, as it's only the one to my right that starts stomping towards me. I get ready, luring it out onto the bridge, then running at it after I pass its range and it starts to back away; it in turn does a sweeping arial attack with lightning, putting its back to me. Its weakness bared, I run over to get on it so I can kill it, but it turns around, accidentally knocking me to the side with its wing - it knocks me too far, and I slip and fall to my death, costing me over 40,000 souls, most of which weren't renewable. Maybe I _should_ have put on that ring…

Well, I don't really have anything to lose now. This is the only thing I haven't yet surmounted that I can get to at this point apart from the lower half of New Londo itself (and those two headless demons in Sen's Fortress), so I need to keep trying; I thoroughly slaughter the first drake this time, so I take that as a good sign. My death spot is close enough to recover at only a little risk, so at least I have that too. Once I get the second drake on the open space, I kill it without too much trouble, though getting it there is a bit of a chore. Now, though, I'm left with two drakes that I need to kill while _on_ a bridge (the last one, I can use the open space on the other side for, surely). With a bit of caution, I kill the third, leaving just the one that killed me last time and the final one - all things considered, this is _not_ going badly. When I have the fourth one out on the bridge with me, I get on its back and _slaughter_ it, leaving just the one more. Across the bridge, I find that some of the slimy piles of corpses have spilled out through the floodgates (lovely). At first, I think killing the final drake will be easy, and for a while the fight goes well, but at one point, while trying to do a sweeping lightning attack, it gets itself stuck in one of the newly-opened doors. I try to hit it through the metal, and this does nothing; while I try to recover from the shock of hitting solid metal, the drake bites me through the door, and I die. Cheap shot.

This one will be it, I'm sure. While slaughtering the first drake, it jumps up and back to try to get away from me, and proceeds to fall off a cliff and die; the second one goes down quickly, despite flying around in a full circle while shooting lightning a couple of times; the third fight is quick and in no way noteworthy; the fourth, the drake's very specific territory parameters mean I can sometimes attack it without it even trying to fight back; and the fifth makes me chase it all over the place by jumping up and flying just as I get to it, again and again and again, but eventually falls.

Now, before I return to New Londo, there's a ladder of thin sticks up a tower over here that I'm going to climb. It's a long way up, and at the top, I find only the anchor holding the ladder that's apparently actually a rope ladder - not a stick one - in place, and a corpse bearing a ring set with a red tearstone. It's nice to have the tearstone ring set, but I don't really have any use for either of them now…maybe I'll feed them to Frampt at some point. When I finally enter New Londo, however, I discover another, bigger problem: I'm down to three swallows of Estus left in my flask - it took seven to get here, and the fire near the lake only gives ten. Having only just made it here, I guess the only thing I can do is move forward and see how it goes.

Right away, I find some stairs near the doorway I went through the first time; I climb them instead, just to see what there is. Immediately, I'm greeted by a skull knight; I'm starting to learn how these creatures fight, so while it does cost me a swig of Estus, the fight isn't too difficult overall. Once I climb the stairs, though, I realize that this _is_ in fact the same way I went before. Confused, I go back down, looking for the doorway I thought I took last time; I find it, and realize that the doorway was most of what remains of a crumbled wall - I went around it instead of through it this time.

So, now I go onward again, headed for where I was; the wet, rotten stink of this place makes me want to wring the muck out of my lungs, but I trudge on. The skull knight I find again on the way to the big room goes down more easily than before, though I'm left with only one drink of Estus left in my Flask. Remembering the black slime, I move forward carefully, but even though the skull knight I remember is still here, the sentient ooze seems to be permanently gone. Unfortunately, the skull knight costs me the last of my Estus. While I'm fighting him, I finally learn their combo attack pattern: a series of four slashes that bring them around in two full spins like an elegant dance. Quite graceful for something presumably supposed to be horrific…Again, something about these creatures/people doesn't bother me as much as this place should. Still, I'm _out_ _of_ _Estus_.

Regardless, I go forward. I look in the left-hand side of the room before going back out to where I died before, and I find another skull knight, standing with his back to me. We fight, and I kill him without a scratch; maybe the lack of Estus won't be quite as problematic as I think. The knight that killed me before outside also goes down without harming me at all. At least I can progress further than I did before.

A corpse on the far edge of the pond bears a large soulmass, as does one lying halfway up some stairs. Out of nowhere, a ghost comes after me when I'm by the corpse on the stairs, surprising me; I run back, use one of my two remaining cursed arms, then head up, and discover _two_ ghosts, which I destroy quickly. Another skull knight then comes running out a doorway just ahead; him, I kill without getting hurt. On a corpse hanging over the side of a well, I find _six_ cracked Red Eye Orbs, which I tuck away to feed to Frampt later; down some stairs, another skull knight finds me and attacks, and as always, I come out on top without harm. Really, they're no different from the black knights - learning their attack patterns means knowing when it's genuinely safe to hit them, and once I manage that, there's no reason to get hit _by_ them at all. As I walk to where that skull knight was and beyond, I find I've made a full circle back around to the floodgates leading to the valley of drakes. It's a one-way shortcut - a shortcut to the lift, really - so I have to retrace my steps, but that's not a problem, since everything on the way is already dead.

Some stairs I noticed earlier, just before coming back around, are my first goal - I noticed some wooden walls on the right side of the room that had the black sludge beast, so I know there's something that way, but I'll do this first. The stairs lead to a very dark area that I don't trust - I can hardly see what's right in front of me. After a few steps, a sound alerts me to the presence of something, and since it's quickly apparent that it isn't a skull knight, I know it's one of those sludge creatures. Reading my catalyst, I back out quickly and prepare to shoot Great Soul Arrows at it, of which I have a fair number left this time. I'm too enthusiastic when I'm far away from it and it isn't coming closer, so it lobs a sludge bomb at me that hits me; the sludge coats me in globs, hindering my movement and sapping what remains of my health. When the stuff finally wears off, I'm near death, so I do the only thing I can do: I take out a Humanity sprite and use it to restore my strength - I know I shouldn't waste these, but this was a genuine emergency. With that out of the way, all of my remaining Great Soul Arrows kill the sludge monster, and the three floating heads it spawned in the meantime are easily triggered to no dangerous end.

Yet another skull knight is waiting for me past where the sludge monster was; like all the others, he goes down easily. Now that it's empty, I slowly creep around the room, on high alert for any noise, hardly able to see anything at all, the crunching of bones under my boots setting me on edge. In one corner, I find a treasure chest, and I remember to check it before opening it; it's real, and it contains a chunk of titanite. Apart from that, this room is now empty. There's one other exit, though, and I'm going to see where that leads. It crosses my mind that maybe I should put on the Rare Ring of Sacrifice now, since I have a fair number of souls, but I decide against it.

Outside again and around a couple of corners, I find another skull knight; I can see a wall of light in the distance, but I'm not sure if there's anything between me and it, so I'm going to go around. After killing the knight, I have second thoughts and check, and it turns out that a narrow, slippery bridge is all that lies between me and the wall of light; still, I'll save that for later. There turns out to actually be nothing else out here, at least as far as I can tell, so I decide to go back to where I saw the wooden walls before. I keep thinking I hear something in the distance, but it always proves to be either imagined or inconsequential, though I can never tell which.

Before, I sort of noticed it, but with no enemies, I now fully register that the water in the pond on the way back is frigid, more so than water ought to be - I can feel it freezing my feet even through my boots. This is more than just a dark, wet place; there's something else here, something colder than nature, I can feel it - I remember I felt it before, but it's stronger now, more defined. Instead of being afraid, though, I'm just curious.

When I reach the wooden walls I noticed before, I find myself in an alley with small wooden buildings like one-room houses along either side of me; I step forward slowly, checking through each doorway before approaching them. Only the right-hand one at the very end contains a skull knight, who quickly falls; I go back and check through each building thoroughly, but they're all completely empty. This alley's ending is sectioned off by a kind of wall, two doorways in either corner; the wall hides a narrow passage containing a corpse bearing another Humanity sprite. The door to the left contains a lift, and I think it's the one I saw near the entrance to the ruins, so I leave it be; the other leads to a spiral staircase that takes me up to a ledge partially made of the ceilings of the alley's buildings. A corpse ahead of me is visible through the dark, but I don't trust it, instead going the long way around, following the ledge around several corners. At one point, I find some stairs, but apart from that, there's nothing, and just before I get to the corpse I saw, the floor turns out to have crumbled - there was no trick, though there was no harm in being careful. I go back, and get a huge soulmass for my caution. Now I just have some stairs. They go up a fair ways, and take me to a bit of floor where I find a treasure chest that I check before opening; it contains a very large ember, and I'm sure Andre will be happy to have it.

Just as I determine that the wall of white light that I saw is the only route left to take, I hear a scream. It takes me a moment to recognize it as the scream of a banshee; I don't know where it is, and can't afford for a bolt of lightning to tell me, so I run, all the way back to the wall of light. For a moment, I hesitate here - I have quite a few souls, definitely enough to use, but going back means I'll have to fight through everything just to get here again. Finally, I decide to put on the Rare Ring of Sacrifice - if nothing else, I can die and go back without losing anything. With the pinkish-purple gem on my finger, I pass through the white light; it doesn't dissipate behind me.

I'm in a hollow tower, with some stairs spiraling down along the wall. Nothing appears to be here, so I begin to cautiously descend. I reach a landing with nothing happening; a second landing, and still nothing. A third, a fourth…how far down can these stairs possibly go? And then, slowly, the stairs fade into darkness and end. Nothing but blackness lies beyond.

Only now do I remember that I must traverse the Abyss to find the Four Kings…which means putting on the ring I won from Sif the Great Gray Wolf. But I already have a Rare Ring of Sacrifice on! My only other choice is…to remove Havel's Ring. Sigh. I'm probably going to die no matter what, so I might as well switch out Havel's Ring for this one part. Of course, I won't just give up and die at the hands of whatever awaits me, but in the already-likely event that I fail, at least I won't have removed my Rare Ring of Sacrifice. I swap out the thick, heavy ring for the thin, tiny one, and then jump down into the darkness.

I fall…fall…down, and down, and down…surely, I'll die on impact with the ground. But when the ground does meet me, it only feels as if I've jumped down from less of a height than I am tall. Having landed, I find myself standing on sheer blackness. There's nothingness all around me - no smell, no sound, no sight. It's an improvement from the rotten stink of the flooded city, but also unnerving - though I take a few steps forward, I'm unsure if I'm even moving at all. Then, the spirits of the Four Kings attack.

The creature that meets me is a gray wraith with a sword and a humanoid face, otherwise made up of what looks like ragged strips of gray cloth. Movement isn't much use in this fight, so I don't even need Havel's Ring here, really; some means of restoring health, however, _is_ necessary, and after a little while, I fall. Only one wraith assaulted me…I wonder where the other Kings were.

New Londo requires no more exploration, it contains only this one battle, and getting to it; I use my souls, revive my body with the Humanity I had to absorb to survive (since there's nothing else I can do with it), then decide to warp to the Firelink Shrine and descend from above - that lift will probably be a tremendous asset. Before I go down, I talk to Laurentius, getting a standard fireball spell and strengthening the flame he gave me twice over, if only because there isn't much else I can do with the souls I've gathered. As I talk to him, I hear a noise, and before I go, I peek through the doorway to where Frampt waits. His massive gray head is resting face-first on the floor in front of him, loud snoring emanating from his hidden mouth. Poor old withering snake…I smile. No, I won't bother him yet - the idea of being taken anywhere in the mouth of a creature with morning breath is downright horrific.

To get the full twenty swallows of Estus that I need, I have to rest at this bonfire, so I do. Then, finally, I descend. I only have one cursed arm left on me, but that should be enough to get me to the lift, if nothing else - and who knows, maybe a ghost will give me two more on the way.

None do, of course, but nothing else of note happens. The lift does indeed work now, and takes me to where I expected, so I'm already close to the door I need to enter to fight the Four Kings - there are a few skull knights in my way, but only a few. When next I fight a skull knight, I notice that the odd shield he conjures is a swirling vortex that simply appears before his hand - he isn't holding anything. Interesting. I slightly miscalculate one factor, though: There are two skull knights hiding in the little wooden huts, but one normally comes out to fight me when I enter from the usual path. This second one surprises me this time, and I seem to have lost my touch somewhat with fighting these knights, but I survive the duo, if nothing else. Of course, I am now unable to fight any ghosts, and there are a couple up ahead, I remember…There's no help for it, I'll try to run past them. When I get to the pond, however, the skull knight's elegant dance gets me stunlocked, and I die.

My supply exhausted, I need to buy some cursed arms from someone…Does Oswald sell those? I can't recall. I'm sure someone does. Of course, I also need souls just to buy them, so instead of heading to the Undead Parish, I warp to the bonfire in the building the red drake was guarding. Passing through the fire gives me a chance to almost pretend to kiss her…Once I'm there, I take the long way around, overkilling everything (except for one knight I fail to riposte after I parry); at the top, with the swarm of ragged Hollows, I get a little too energetic, and jump-attack more than I swing, when a swing would be more effective, which costs me some health. Unfortunately, Oswald does not sell cursed arms…but I think maybe that near-Hollow woman might.

First, though, I go down to see Andre, bearing the very large ember I found in the ruins below - miraculous that it's still burning after being underwater for so long, even in a chest. As I pass the path, I wonder if I should go fight those two headless demons still lurking at the bottom of the fortress…No, no I won't, I decide, not right now.

"Well I'll be," Andre says at the sight of what I carry. "That's a brilliant ember you've got there. For all my years in the trade, that might be the finest. How about you…leave that ember with me? I'm just an old smith. I'd give my left arm for a gem like that."

"Of course," I reply, and I hand it over.

"Well, thank you mightily for that!" he says happily. "Now just leave the rest to me. Andre of Astora gets the job done, you shall see!"

"I think I'm all set for now," I tell him; "enjoy that ember, though."

"I'll be seeing you, then," he says in farewell. "Be careful out there."

"I will," I assure him, and I go.

The near-Hollow woman is far no matter which way I go, but I take the path through the forest, up the tower, through all the Hollows, past the other near-Hollow merchant, into the waterway, and run up to her - I get more souls that way. It's just as well, because she does indeed have some, but at a high price; as it is, I can only afford one. That's okay, one's all I really need, I can run past those two near the doorway. When I get back to the bonfire and take a moment to rest and recuperate, I _do_ have junk to feed Frampt, and probably a significant amount, but I really don't want to give him the Lordvessel until I have to in order to do anything - being half-swallowed by a creature with breath that bad is something I'll put off as long as possible. Just to make sure nothing breaks when I need it most, I use the souls I have left to repair all my equipment; I have only four souls left over from this, so it was desperately needed. Then, I go down again.

Luckily, I won't have to run past the ghosts down below - the first ghost I kill on my way gives me two more cursed arms, as does the final one I have to kill before taking the lift down. While fighting off the two ghosts near the lift, I notice that they seem to like following the path of corridors rather than simply floating through walls; I wonder why. When I make it to the ghosts down below - which I do - I end up mostly fighting them through the ground, as only their heads stick out; one gives up and goes back, though, and when I lure it out again, it's at my level. After that, however, I'm somehow assaulted by two skull knights at once where the second black sludge monster used to be, and though I try to run back, they chase me all through the ruins. Both of them swinging their huge swords at me at the same time is nothing short of a slaughter. I die.

Still, I at least have enough cursed arms to make it a second time. However, I'm able to get through the ghosts and skull knights so quickly now, the first cursed arm is still working when I reach the ghosts below, and lasts long enough for me to kill them, too! Once they're gone, the nearer skull knight comes out of the building after me, so I kill him before moving in to find the other. The second skull knight in this building is the first creature this whole way to actually pose a threat to me - he fights well, and I have a hard time defeating him as I have the ones before him; I respect that, but he falls before me all the same. After that, it turns out that there's nothing else standing between me and the wall of white light; I traverse it immediately, just to be safe, then take a swig of Estus to heal the last of my injuries, swap out Havel's Ring for Artorias's ring, and descend, first the stairs, then the darkness.

When I fall, I charge straight for the first giant wraith that appears. The fight goes much better this time, but as it proceeds, a second wraith appears on the sidelines, and later a third. They don't attack me as directly as the one I'm currently engaged with, but once or twice, giant swords stab me from behind. When I finally kill the first wraith, as it disintegrates before me, I momentarily lose the ability to see around me, and one of the remaining wraiths kills me.

Alright, this is kind of new. It's not like Ornstein and his partner, it's completely different. Being able to dodge _probably_ still won't help, so using the Cloranthy Ring rather than Havel's Ring is still _probably_ a good idea…I'll try doing the same thing one more time before reevaluating my strategy.

One way or another, I am getting better at fighting - when I reach the wall of light this time, I've only accrued a few scratches along the whole way, without using even one drink of Estus. At one point, while trying to lure out the second ghost, I accidentally alert the skull knight just inside the doorway, and I manage to kill him _and_ lure out and destroy the other ghost, all still before my first cursed arm runs out. I don't think I could be more ready for this battle…unless of course there was some way I could move freely in my armor without using Havel's Ring. The Cloranthy Ring really is a tremendous asset - being able to keep my energy up is invaluable. So I descend, heavily burdened and clunky, once more.

When I drop down, I see my death spot in the distance, and run for it; I barely manage to get it before the first wraith is upon me. Hoping to be able to kill it faster - before its allies arrive - I start to two-hand the drake sword, but this quickly gets me badly hurt. Even when I switch back, I'm soon killed. As I die, I watch the wraith that killed me cast what looks like an enormous shockwave spell - I'm lucky to have not seen it before, and now that I know it's there, I need to be more mindful. Then I'm dead.

There's another option, I realize as I rise beside the Firelink Shrine bonfire again: The Grass Crest Shield. I could use that with Havel's Ring to get the same boosts while still wearing Artorias's ring. The thing about the Grass Crest Shield is that it doesn't completely block even the most basic of damage…but, with enough Estus, I guess I could always heal, and being able to dodge attacks will probably make up for the incomplete defense. Yes…yes, I'll try that.

Down again. The second ghost in the lower area gives me two more cursed arms, so I'm set if I fail this time. On the way into the room to face the last skull knight, I notice a ghost float away through the ceiling; I wonder if these were the same ghosts that floated up from under the water on the way to Ingward's outpost? In any case, once I'm through the wall of white light, I take the one drink of Estus to fully restore myself - I've once again avoided having to use any before now - and switch around my equipment as I theorized. Yes…this _should_ work. I'm perfectly nimble, my energy is reinforced, _and_ I have the power to traverse the Abyss. This time, if any time, I should be able to get this right. But no…I'm quickly killed by the wraith.

I _can_ do this, same as I could with Ornstein. However, I guess, maybe I can strengthen myself elsewhere first, to make it easier. There are still dragon scales to be found in the underground lake, I know, and killing the hydra would probably get me a lot of souls; I can teleport at least part of the way there now, so I do, leaving behind a good 30,000+ souls to almost certainly vanish into nothingness.


	33. Chapter 32

Unfortunately, "part of the way there" turns out to simply mean the bonfire down in the sewers - I'll still have to get through all of Blighttown. That's okay, I can manage. On the way, this proves more true than I even thought - ghouls and lizard-men fall before me easily, cut down by my blade. I'm too strong for this place; perhaps I'll be strong enough for the underground lake? When even the bugs prove no match for me, I start to get cocky; when a bunch of souls flow into me as I'm entering the tree, presumably from one of the black frog things, I get _very_ cocky, though not too much so to remember to attune Fall Control. Through the bonfire, she tells me that my first priority is getting to the other end of the underground lake - never mind the hydra, or anything else that might chase me, I _need_ to get there. She won't tell me why, but I trust her; I cast Fall Control and begin my descent.

Several times, I jump just as the spell wears off, but not to any great harm. Another black frog thing dies on my way down, and when fighting the ones on the second level, I slip and drop far below them, again after the spell wears off, almost killing me but not quite. When I get down to the bottom, however, I try my idea of going around the big mushroom people, only to find myself literally trapped in a corner, with no way out. It turns out that I can now withstand a single punch from the mushroom people, but not two; I die.

This time, I don't bother fighting anything, and make sure the spell is functioning at all times. I get down quickly - quickly enough to almost be able to catch a crystal lizard on the way (but not quite). When I get to the bottom, I don't worry about my death spot; I run through the narrow gap in the wood to get the big mushroom people trapped, then start luring it into attacking and countering when I get a chance. Or at least, that's what I do at first. After a little while, I decide to just take out my catalyst and start shooting magic at the lumpy thing. It goes down with seventeen castings of Great Soul Arrow. I prepare to start doing the same with one that comes up from right behind the first - and to use the Heavy version when it comes to it - but somehow, this hulking monstrosity finds a way to squeeze through the narrow gap. I run back along the passage until it seems to kind of give up; when I stop to think about things, it starts walking towards me, stopping a fair distance away, backing up, then coming forward again. After I watch this for a while, I remember that there's a bonfire just outside - I could reset all of this, even attune some new spells, then finish them off. No need to abandon my death spot.

I try it - I swap out the rusted iron ring for the Darkmoon Seance Ring, attune all my offensive spells and also the most powerful pyromancy, then stand again and jog back up the wood ramp to the passage. It works, and none of the big mushroom people manage to squeeze through this time; I turn out to have not needed any pyromancy (if only just barely), and trying to use Homing Soulmass a second time proves how utterly useless it is, since the three orbs of energy the spell summons around me turn out to only aim at a thing when it gets close, meaning it all goes towards a small mushroom that runs up to me. Having the pyromancy flame on-hand, I don't have a sword, but I start stabbing the annoying mushroom with my catalyst, the wand being a pointy metal object, and this proves surprisingly effective. Once all the big mushrooms are dead, I recover my death spot, kill the two small mushrooms that get in my way, and return to the lake. At the bonfire, I change Homing Soulmass to a more useful spell, then take off the Darkmoon Seance Ring to put the Cloranthy Ring back on.

I'm not trapped down here, thanks to the power of the Lordvessel - I can leave via this bonfire anytime I want. It's getting back here again that will be a problem. As this crosses my mind, she again urges me to get to the other end of the lake. I wonder…

Well, if nothing else, I can explore this place. The hydra is still intimidating - from afar, I can see its many limbs and tails writhing under its solid back…although, I wonder, if I use the Hawk Ring and my bow, could I maybe kill it from a far distance - even a safe distance? I want to try…but it's so risky. First and foremost, I need to do as she says, and run to the other end of this place, across the little bridge of ash that leads to another enormous tree. So, I start running.

Along the way, at a certain distance, the hydra jumps over the ash, over _me_ ; one head comes unnervingly close to biting my own head off. In addition to this, a giant clam creature has noticed me; I lure the clam behind the ridge of ash that now protects me from the hydra, and fight it. Fighting the clam is time-consuming more than anything - its armor is pretty tough. Still, I kill it in the end. Its mouth swings open, revealing a shell full of skulls. Lovely.

Now, I have to get past the hydra. I know I can't stay on this side of this ridge of ash the whole way - at a certain point, I'll have to climb over it or go around it, or fall into the water (and I can't afford to fall, given how heavy I am). When I check, I find that the drop-off point is closer even than I thought - I have no options.

Carefully, I go back a ways. It takes a couple of tries for me to find a spot that isn't too steep to run up; once I do, I wait until just after the hydra shoots its water missiles, then start running. After a little ways, I make it over another ridge, to another hollow tree - not my goal, the one in between. Some black frog things greet me, and I kill them; when a large mushroom person appears, however, I decide to just go around the tree, taking refuge where I can. At last, all I have left is the narrow, winding path of ash to where I'm trying to go. I start running, as fast as I can, trying not to pay mind to the sounds of water missiles being launched behind me. As before, one hits me, but this time, I can take it; I keep running. A second missile catches me in the back, and for a moment I'm certain I'm dead, but somehow, I manage to find the strength to stay on my feet; I take a drink of Estus and resume running. The hydra's third set of missiles misses me, as the path takes a sharp turn. Then, at last, I've made it under the wooden archway into a field of what could be a hollow tree or a bunch of roots and branches, it's impossible to tell.

It's darker in here. Slowly, I walk along the path, and eventually come to a clearing at the base of some branches. In the middle of the clearing is a bonfire, already lit and waiting; beyond that, is…well, I can't tell what it is. Two sets of wings are folded around some creature, but it's completely blocked itself from view. Warily, I walk up to the bonfire. The wings unfold, and I see the mythical being I've discovered.

A dragon.

Sitting before me, in a nest, is a real, live dragon. One of the Everlasting Dragons, from before the Age of Fire. It's a magnificent beast, its long horns elegantly curved, its wings fanning around itself, its torso almost humanoid and muscular while still being distinctly reptilian…it's hard to see in this light, but I think it's red. Red was her favorite color…

The dragon doesn't do anything. It just sits in place, its wings moving slightly back and forth as it breathes, watching me. I approach the bonfire and sit down; the creature just sits there, proud and powerful. She encourages me, and I take a few steps forward until I'm at the base of its seat of branches and twigs.

 _Kneel_.

I get down on the ash. It's not the same kneel I graced Gwynevere with, just a drop to my knees. Without words, the fantastic creature offers me a covenant. As I am currently not part of one, I accept; I hold out my hands, and a black light swirls between them as I'm bound to the dragon - so very different from covenants with humans or even cats. Then, in each of my hands, an item appears. In one, a stone emblazoned with the profile of a dragon's head, with which I can transform my own head into that of a dragon; in the other, a stone dragon eye, with which I can seek out other Undead with dragon scales and challenge them. I take them both wordlessly, then rise - I do not defile the blessed sanctity of this place, this being, with mortal words.

From the bonfire, she tells me that, on top of having dragon tools, I also can warp _to_ this bonfire whenever I want - never again will I have to drop through the hollow tree. This, too, is a miracle. I feel much more ready now, and I walk back out into the open to search for what she told me is here. On the way, I splash my feet in the water, washing off some of the Blighttown muck.

The hydra doesn't attack me until it's close; when I'm close enough, instead of shooting water missiles, it sticks its heads into the ash. I'm not expecting this, and I turn around to try to hit one of the heads; I'm lifted partway into the air, and, having lost my balance, can't swing my sword in time. Then I turn and run up a root that leads into the hollow tree between the dragon and the tree I came down through. A black frog thing meets me, and I cut it down; two more blow smoke below me, and I wait for them to come to me, then cut them down one by one. Lastly is the giant mushroom person. As it starts to walk towards me, I cast Heavy Great Soul Arrows; when it gets close, I drop down and continue. Once I'm out of those, I use regular Great Soul Arrows, which kills it. Now I'm alone in here; there's nothing to find. I can hear the hydra outside, though, its water missiles pounding against the outside of the tree. Again, I wonder about shooting it with arrows? I've already forgotten if I'm strong enough to use the giant bow and arrows from Anor Londo, but I have plenty of large regular arrows, and a reinforced bow.

After taking a minute to catch my breath, I slowly, cautiously poke my head out the other exit to this tree. I'm greeted by a sheer wall of ash; I can't climb this, and it doesn't look at a glance like I can shoot over it, either. Though, perhaps…perhaps there's something here? I move back inside to consider it, then go out again. No, there's nothing out here. When I go back inside to check the walls for illusions, nothing happens. My one objective is to kill this hydra - a feat she herself never accomplished, actually - but how? I need to be smart about this…

Just to be sure, I check the giant bow I got from Anor Londo, and am surprised to find that I actually _am_ capable of wielding it, though I only have two javelins to shoot. With the Hawk Ring, I _can_ make use of this, and so, I try. First, I test the bow, and accidentally use a javelin in doing so; then, I aim it and fire at a neck poking over the top of the ridge, and hit. Nothing happens, but I wouldn't expect results from a single arrow, even an enormous one like what I'm using. Now, I have to use the regular bow.

Two heads come off with the use of a bow and arrows, and I also manage a few hits on a third head…but that's all. I wonder…I'm not sure if teleporting away and then back here would restore its heads. Unwilling to take the risk, I decide to go out and try doing it the hard way, but with that in mind as backup…I could even get some javelins from the giant in Anor Londo if it comes to that, actually. Unfortunately, as I climb out of the tree, I slip and fall into the bottomless lake and die. _Sigh_ …

Those souls I left behind, I need before I go back, if I'm going to buy arrows. This is a winning strategy, I've already confirmed that, I just need souls. It's only now, though, that I remember I still have a Homeward Bone on me. Alright…I'll go out there, get my souls back, use the bone, and then use this fire to take me to Anor Londo, where I can get some javelins. Yes, that seems prudent.

When I emerge this time, the hydra is nowhere to be seen - it's gone back to the other end of the lake. Convenient! I have to kill all the black frog things to get back to my death spot, but dropping down to the floor from the entrance effectively evades the giant mushroom, and I grab my souls and escape with the Homeward Bone in one fell swoop. Now, I use this bonfire to bring myself back to the bonfire Anor Londo - the one with the Fire Keeper.

She's still leaning against the wall, as always. Looking at her, I wonder if she knows anything about what's going on…about why I feel like something's wrong. Seeking answers, I approach her.

"Hmm. So, you have received a revelation?" she notes, seeing, as Ingward did, the power of the Lordvessel in me. "Very auspicious. I hope for the best. I hope that through you, Her wish will be granted."

Her? Not _my_ lady, that much is certain…Gwynevere? Probably…Regardless, I ask the Fire Keeper, "Do you know anything about what's going on?"

"Have you heard of Seath the Scaleless?" she asks in reply. "In legend, he turned against the ancient dragons. He became Lord Gwyn's confidant, was granted dukedom, and was allowed to pursue his research. At the Regal Archives, he immersed himself in research on scales of immortality, the one thing that he did not have. But his very research drove him mad…The Archives became a dungeon, a place for sinister experiments. Now, nobody dares even approach the duke's forbidden Archives. It looms over this land, high atop the mountain. But I should warn against even an approach…"

Meaning, no doubt, that I'm going to have to go there at some point in the future. Come to think of it, that's almost certainly what the wall of golden light just outside blocks the entrance to.

"If you require rest, now is the time," she adds after a moment. "That is, after all, what the bonfire is for."

When was the last time I rested? A _long_ time ago…but I still have a drive to keep going. I thank her for her knowledge, then turn to go - she's clearly not going to be forthcoming about what's going on, if indeed she does know anything at all. So I leave, heading for the giant's forge, killing what few things I have to along the way. The giant greets me with his limited vocabulary and understanding of English, and I take a look at his wares. In addition to javelins, he also sells magic arrows called Moonlight Arrows, as well as feathered arrows, which are better than simple large arrows. I think it would be most prudent to reinforce my normal bow twice over (as I can, with the large shards of titanite I've gathered over time), then buy ten javelins and as many feather arrows as I can with what I have left, which turns out to be a full 156. If I can't kill the hydra with these, I don't think anything will kill it. Equipped, I bid the giant farewell and leave, taking the raging bonfire back to the roost of the ancient dragon.

My first order of business is to get inside the hollow tree again and clear out all the monsters - the vantage point that has served me best is just outside that place, and there's no need to change what works. Once again, the hydra is nowhere to be seen when I exit the dragon's lair, so I'll have to lure it over soon. First, I get to the tree, going around to the other side in the hopes of getting the hydra's attention on the way (to no avail). From a distance, I can see that all its heads are indeed back. In any case, I go in the narrow entrance, lure out the two black frogs one at a time and kill them, bait the giant mushroom, then back away from it while casting magic until it dies; when I run out of Heavy Great Soul Arrows and start using regular Great Soul Arrows, it turns slightly to its left and starts walking into the side of the tree for some reason as I kill it. That done, I run inside to make sure there's nothing else; there isn't.

Next, I need to lure the hydra over here. This is going to be risky, but my best bet is to be bold about it; I charge out. At a certain distance away, I wonder if I can get its attention by shooting an arrow at it from far away, but I decide not to bother. A little bit further, it registers my presence, and dives underwater. For a moment, only foam on the surface indicates its presence; then, it leaps out of the water, over the path of ash, revealing its many tentacled appendages and blasting the ground with water. Having gotten its attention, I run back to my vantage point, and once I'm sure that it's in position, I take out the bigger bow and start firing.

After four javelins, I remember to re-equip the Hawk Ring, which I swapped out for the Cloranthy Ring after I ran out of arrows last time. Two javelins later, the first head comes off. After I use the next four, the second head comes off. That leaves only five heads to take off with over 150 feathered arrows; I see no reason why this shouldn't work. 31 arrows later, I get the third head; hitting it gets more difficult as the heads start moving in more and more wild patterns, but 33 more arrows sees the fourth head go; a slight change in vantage point brings the two right-most heads into range, and with a clearer shot, 22 arrows take off the fifth head; I start threading the needle to get the sixth head, shooting right between the top of the ash ridge and the bottom of a root, but before the head comes off, the hydra apparently can't take anymore, and it falls, leaving me with two dragon scales.

I come out from my vantage point, feeling slightly cheated. Somehow, killing a hydra without taking off all of its heads feels less satisfying, like knocking the iron golem off the edge of the roof of Sen's Fortress. Still, the underground lake is safe to explore now, so I do. Of course, there isn't much left. There is, however, one spot that I could never get to because of the hydra that I'm now free to look at, a point around the edge of the tree I came down to get here. When I search the spot, I find a body carrying another dragon scale. That means I have four now - enough to reinforce my drake sword again, maybe enough to reinforce it twice (though I know I definitely don't have the souls to do that, even with the souls from the hydra). All the same, I came down here for dragon scales, and I have dragon scales and more; it's time to head back up. Since it's closer, I take the bonfire at this end of the swath of ash, and go to the Undead Parish to see Andre - less out of favoritism, more out of trust.

As it turns out, not only do I need a lot more souls, I actually need _four_ dragon scales to reinforce my sword a final time. All the same, the once-over is good, and there's still that rotted dragon in the snowy mountain world through the painting. My only regret now is a lack of souls with which to strengthen my own body…If nothing else, it's definitely time to kill those two headless demons in Sen's Fortress.

"Oh yes," Andre says suddenly, "and one thing about the Darkroot Garden. It is said to house the grave of Sir Artorias the Abysswalker. Only, of those who ventured into the forest, none has returned."

 _Except me,_ I think but don't say, deciding not to tell him that I already knew and had conquered this. We exchange farewells, and I climb the stairs, mark my place at the bonfire, and go into Sen's Fortress once more.

My new sword slaughters the snake men, and I'm glad I went to the trouble of getting those scales; maybe it'll even be worth looking for more. Once I've jumped down after casting Fall Control, I swap out my Cloranthy Ring for the rusted iron ring, and proceed towards where the headless demons wait. As I go, I notice that Fall Control, in addition to protecting me when I jump down long distances, has a slight invigorating property to it as well - it doesn't last long enough for that to be practical, but it's interesting. I'm a bit too eager for the fight, though, and the headless demon shooting lightning from far away works with the one up close swinging at me with its weapon to kill me. That's okay, it was a simple mistake.

This time, I'm more careful, but at one point get caught out in the open where they can both hit me, and a stray jolt of lightning ends me, though I was pretty far along in killing that first beast.

On my next try, at one point, I try to get into a pattern of casting a spell while they both charge up their lightning blows, then dodging immediately after I shoot, but I can't find a rhythm and soon give it up. The monster I'm fighting really seems to enjoy jumping around, but it doesn't do its dropping attack as often, so it's less dangerous than normal; no sooner do I register this than it starts doing jumping attacks. A lot more dodging than what I usually do, combined with some use of guerrilla tactics and patience, goes a long way, and though arrogance has me being swung at by both demons at once at one point, ultimately, the first monster falls at last. Going one-on-one with the other is less daunting, but running at it proves to not be the wisest move, and it quickly kills me. Still, the one is down for good!

With just the one to go, I run out to recover my death spot, then start fighting, using the method I know works. It does work, but at one point, I find myself trapped in a corner I didn't know was there - where a bit of wall sticks out - and I get beaten down. That's fine, it just means another thousand souls on the way. One last try sees me victorious, and with that, this entire challenge is over; I search around this space for some sort of reward, but there's nothing else here.

Well, that's that done with, and I still don't have nearly enough souls to strengthen myself - my sword is more powerful, yes, but I'd still feel better if there was something else I could…do…

The Catacombs. The dark cave beyond that pinwheel demon. Should I…? She did - she did it before she even rang the second Bell of Awakening, and she had to climb her way back out on hand and foot when she was done down there instead of warping between bonfires. But would this be brave, or stupid? I think…I think stupid. Yes, I should save that for later.

Apart from that, however, there's nothing else for me to achieve. With no better ideas, she encourages me to explore the castle of Anor Londo again. She seems like she's waiting for something, or someone…but she won't tell me for sure, I guess in case it doesn't work. All the same, I have no better ideas, so I climb out of the fortress, go to the bonfire, and warp to Anor Londo.

It's not until I'm halfway through fighting a giant armor knight that I remember to swap out my rusted iron ring for my Cloranthy Ring, but I destroy it all the same. The difference in my sword's strength is very noticeable, and I'm glad I went to all that trouble; the giant also drops a chunk of titanite. Then, I carry on my way, letting her guide my steps to whatever it is she wants to see. Even the silver knights fall easily before me. I climb up the set of spiral stairs to the roof, cross to a tower, descend some steps into that room where she protested back when I first passed it…and find Siegmeyer, standing in front of the open window.

"Hmm," he mumbles. "Hrmmmm…Whatever can be done?"

"Hello?" I ask.

"Ah, you again!" he says pleasantly, noticing me. "Let me guess: Were you repelled by the Silver Knights?"

"No…" I say slowly.

"Aww, don't be ashamed," he tells me. "'Tis the fate of vanguards like you and I. I'll think of something. We can overcome this together!"

"Um…no thanks," I say, and I turn to the open door through which three silver knights wait. They go down easily, I don't even have to try. Then I go back to him. "Ta-da," I say with more than a little sarcasm.

"Mmm…mmm…" he mumbles. "Mm…Oh! Oh-hoh! What's on your mind, friend?"

"They're gone," I inform him.

"Wait!…You defeated those monsters?!" he exclaims. "Fantastic. I am saved! This knight of Catarina hereby commends you. Take this, as a token of my gratitude."

He hands me a thin ring of dark metal set with a small pink stone, just a bit bigger and more elaborate than the ring that allows me to traverse the Abyss.

"But be warned," he says as I tuck it away, "gallantry entails great risks. Next time, give me a chance to come up with a plan." I can hear a bit of exasperation in his voice at the end of this, and I can tell, he really wanted to do something himself. Not only is he a lazy coward, he's a lazy coward who enjoys relying on other people about as much as I do. What a wonderful combination. Still, I have my prize, and I go.

Yes, that was what she was waiting for. Now, there's nothing else to do except roam around aimlessly and kill whatever I find. Unless of course…I want to return to that snowy mountain. But am I ready? Somehow, I don't think I am. I have no blooming purple moss clumps, for one thing; for another, the monsters there are strong, which is why I want revenge at some point. No, if I'm not ready for the dark cave beyond the Catacombs, I'm not ready to go to that world in the painting and kill everything. Even after I kill the silver knight and giant in the great hall, I'm still at a loss. I guess I could always…go somewhere an arbitrary distance from Firelink Shrine, gather enough souls on the way to use on myself, then go back down to New Londo again. That seems like the best option, so I take it, choosing to warp to the place the red drake was guarding as my starting point.

I go out the side of the building when I get there to kill the ragged Hollows on the way, but when I do, I find Solaire, standing beside the shattered golden statue. Surprised, I approach and greet him.

"Hm," he sighs, oddly similarly to Siegmeyer. "Ah. Oh, hello," he says, noticing me. "Forgive me, I was just pondering…about my poor fortune. I did not find my own sun, not in Anor Londo, nor in Twilight Blighttown. Where else might my sun be? Lost Izalith, or the Tomb of the Gravelord…? But I cannot give up. I became Undead to pursue this! But when I peer at the Sun up above, it occurs to me…What if I am seen as a laughingstock, as a blind fool without reason? Well, I suppose they wouldn't be far off!" He chuckles.

"I don't think a sun can be obtained," I remark. "I've seen a lot of things, going through Blighttown and Anor Londo myself…Even light I learned to summon from an ancient sorceress is hardly a sun. I wouldn't say you're a laughingstock, though…" Not to his face, at least.

He has no response to this, so I bid him farewell, then kill the ragged Hollows out here like I intended to. When I reach the bonfire at Firelink Shrine, I'm surprised to see Siegmeyer standing by the fire across from my friend. I stop at the fire first, only to find that I'm _just_ short of enough souls to use; I leave, run out and kill a couple of Hollows, and come back. It's frustrating that I can't feed my junk to Frampt right now, but I guess it just means I'll get a lot of souls later on. Regardless, I then approach Siegmeyer and greet him.

"Well! Fancy meeting you here," he says. "You did much for me up above. I am grateful…You know, I was thinking: The gates at the old fortress…Was that your doing?"

"Yes," I reply, glad to get recognition for it.

"Yes! I knew it!" he exclaims. "It seemed like an unlikely coincidence. Well, am I fortunate! This knight of Catarina thanks you sincerely. Please take this, as a token of my gratitude."

He hands me a bit of magic. No, not a spell, a Miracle - Emit Force. Shame, I'm not so good with Miracles, being of little faith…but I thank him all the same.

"There you are," he says as I receive it. "I'll be heading down below shortly. There's nothing worthwhile up above. No worries! Adventuring is my life; I'm prepared for the worst." He chuckles.

"I'm heading down too," I comment; "maybe we'll see each other. Farewell."

Now, there's nothing left for it - I need to go kill the Four Kings. And yet…oh, I've been journeying for so _long_ …I still have the energy to keep going, but now, I can't help but wonder at the wisdom of it. Perhaps resting would do me some good; I've accomplished a lot, after all. Yes…I'll sleep, and then take on the Four Kings when I'm rested. I lie down by the fire, surrounded by her warmth and nearly all of the good people left in Lordran, and sleep.


	34. Chapter 33

When next I wake, I'm ready, and I charge down to the ruins. I've taken this path several times, but only now do I really notice that the mossy wooden bridge into the upper portion of the ruins is far above the water instead of touching it, and that the first area in the ruins is high and dry. Yes, I needed rest, badly. One of the ghosts up top drops, not cursed arms, but one of its blades - a cursed blade, with which I can harm ghosts without my own body being cursed. Before I descend, another gives me two more cursed arms.

Down in the stinking slime pit, I'm amazed at how easily I can slaughter the skull knights - though my increased boldness does get me more than just a few scratches. The first one that falls even drops an entire _slab_ of titanite - something I can use to reinforce my armor one more time. When I reach the last skull knight, emboldened by my new strength, I'm a bit too reckless, and he kills me.

No matter; I go out to kill a couple of Hollows, use the bonfire to take me back to Andre's forge, have him reinforce my leggings, return to Firelink Shrine, sit down for a moment to mark my place, and go down again all the stronger. I decide to use another cursed arm instead of the blade I got; I'm a bit more intelligent with how I go about fighting the skull knights this time, and I'm still able to cut through them quickly enough to traverse the white light long before the arm wears off, though I am cost a second swig of Estus. Once I'm through, I swap out my equipment and descend the steps to the Abyss. When the wraiths appear, I fight them boldly, and though the fight goes a bit better than before, I fall just before the first wraith does.

Once again. The second skull knight I fight gives me _two_ chunks of titanite (where are they getting it all?), and nothing else of significance happens on the way. When I reach the Abyss, however, I get lost trying to find my death spot, and am quickly killed. There's no point of reference, so I can only see actual things that are around me - if I'm off, it's hard to tell.

It crosses my mind as I rise again that I might want to strengthen my Grass Crest Shield - reinforcement doesn't increase a shield's defensive properties all that much, but even a little would probably help, and I have plenty of titanite shards, if few large ones. I warp to the bonfire above Andre's forge - remembering only once I'm there to switch my equipment back out - go out to get some souls, and come back in. While I'm out, I notice how very little damage I take even from the full force of the sword of a Hollow I used to think of as strong, as I have difficulty parrying it, but only need to drink from my Estus Flask once. When I finally do parry and riposte it, it's kind enough to give me another shard of titanite. Still, when I go to Andre, I find I'm one short of being able to reinforce my shield thrice over; twice has to do. Then I go back.

The trip down this time costs me the last of my cursed arms - if I have to make the journey once more, I'll need to use the ghost's blade. Nothing of consequence happens on the way, and I try again. This time, I have a better understanding of the pattern, and I manage to kill two wraiths, and land a hit or two on the third. However, more wraiths keep spawning in the background, and when the one I'm fighting _and_ one of the ones on the sidelines both cast magic at me, I fall. Still, I know now that this is possible.

As feared, I have to use the ghost's blade to kill the ghosts down below this time. It's little more than a dagger, but I can use it several times in quick succession to make up for its lack of weight. It gets the job done, but the fact that I can't protect myself with my shield - because it isn't cursed - costs me a _lot_ of Estus. I also somehow manage to send the lift back up after I get down to the lower area, probably by accidentally activating it as I step off. Even the skull knights seem more problematic than before - the first one almost kills me. The second one gives me another chunk of titanite, though, and when I try two-handing the dagger against the remaining ghosts, this proves completely effective. Still, I'm down five swallows of Estus by the time I get to the Four Kings' domain.

I take time to recover my death spot, and this costs me enough time for a second wraith to appear before I even really start engaging the first; they double-team me, and I quickly die. During the battle, I also discover that it is impossible to block their magic…perhaps if I just have my Crest Shield on standby, I can use whichever one a situation calls for during the battle, and that might help.

One of the ghosts on the way drops a second blade…I wonder if the amount of souls I'll get from Frampt when the time comes will be comparable to the amount I'll get from defeating the Four Kings? Probably not, though the thought makes me smile. When I get to the lift, I forget that it's already up because of the fluke before, and I waste a moment trying to pull the lever; I'd have to fight the ghost that attacks me as a result anyway, though, so it doesn't really cost me much. What _does_ cost me, however, is my boldness with the second skull knight - he kills me.

At least now I don't have a death spot in the Abyss to worry about. Keeping that thought in mind, I climb down once more. The fourth skull knight gives me another chunk of titanite, and the first of the two ghosts down below that I kill gives me another two cursed arms to use instead of the blade - very useful, as what I'm doing now is costing me. Although, it doesn't cost me quite so much this time - the skull knights go down quickly, and when I get to the tower of the Four Kings, I've used just as much Estus as I have sometimes while using cursed arms.

Being able to focus on the Four Kings without worrying about a death spot results in things going slightly better, but being hit by magic from two wraiths at once kills me as it would anyone. I do notice that my Crest Shield is better in this fight overall…perhaps, just perhaps, I should use it _instead_ of the Grass Crest Shield, or swap out only if I really need the Grass Crest Shield's invigorating properties. Another thing I notice is that things get slightly easier if the wraith I'm fighting and the wraiths on the sidelines aren't very close to each other.

On the way down this time, I use a cursed arm instead of the ghost blade because I can. I've killed two skull knights before I realize I've forgotten to swap out my rings, and still they go down easily…yes, I think the invigorating properties of the Cloranthy Ring or the Grass Crest Shield weren't as useful as I thought; the final skull knight does manage to kill me, but only because of a silly mistake on my part. Then, when I rise at Firelink Shrine again, I remember the green blossoms I found in the Darkroot Garden so long ago - they work the same way as the Grass Crest Shield or the Cloranthy Ring, even though it's a temporary fix. I put them on-hand to use just in case.

This time, when I kill the first skull knight, he drops something besides titanite. It's a strange sort of energy that wants to take hold of my hand…I think this is the power the skull knights use to create their weird shields, and to suck the life force out of healthy Undead. Just holding it makes me shiver - not with horror, but with excitement. When I get to the ghosts and final skull knights, the second ghost doesn't appear until I'm well into fighting the final skull knight, though I give it plenty of time to come to me where it's usually lured. Then I'm through the white light and have taken a drink of Estus. Given time now, I examine the strange force that that skull knight dropped…I want to use it, but I know I shouldn't even be holding it - I don't even want to feed it to Frampt. With no other ideas, I drop it at the top of the stairs, then descend.

Just before I jump into the Abyss, I eat a green blossom. This time, I charge in confidently, assured by all the assets at my disposal. For the most part, the fight doesn't go badly, but when one of the other wraiths appears and starts helping the first one from the sidelines, I'm quickly killed. Despite how close I've come once or twice, I have to face it: I'm not strong enough right now.

Being in Firelink Shrine, I realize I'm in a prime position to descend into the Catacombs again, and investigate that dark cave. I consider it for a moment, then decide to go, leaving 14,000 souls in the Abyss. With no need for Artorias's ring right now, I put the Cloranthy Ring back on. Frampt is snoring loudly as I pass; I leave him be. He must be _very_ old…

It's almost embarrassing, how easily the skeletons in my way go down as I descend into the depths. Even when I have to switch out my drake sword for my Divine Morning Star, the most dangerous thing down here is the floating heads, which do knock me down a couple of times, but to very little consequence. I reach the first bonfire with painful ease, and even the path to the second is laughable. A single Heavy Great Soul Arrow kills any skeleton in one hit, and the the Divine Morning Star only takes two or three. Even the booby-trapped statues barely prick me when they even manage to hit me.

At the second bonfire, I remember to attune Cast Light for the dark cave; I do need the ability to have more spells on-hand, so I will work towards that. I don't bother taking the shortcut to the skeleton smith, just head down the main path, ready to face the spike wheel skeletons - I feel like I can easily take them now. As it turns out, I'm slightly less prepared than I thought, but the two floating heads down there that I forgot about do much more damage to them than to me, so the closer ones are quickly taken care of, and I'm ready for the ones further on, which attack me one or two at a time. I even find the cave that will take me back, if I wanted to climb instead of using a bonfire to teleport (if there is a bonfire ahead); I also fight what must have been a skeleton high up that fell down here…so that's what happens to the ones that fall all that way. After a minute, I realize that the fact that the floating heads killed some of the spike wheel skeletons and they didn't revive means I don't have to use a divine weapon anymore, so I switch back to my drake sword, only to then discover that I've already killed them all.

Now there's nothing but the dark cave; I get to it, then use Cast Light. The glowing orb that floats just above my head only illuminates a little ways, but it's better than the pitch-blackness of before. I follow the path of glowing pebbles down a slope, across a stone pillar on its side that acts as a bridge, and into the presence of another giant skeleton, just like the ones in the graveyard up above. This, too, goes down easily now. A little ways on, I look around just to be thorough, and find the skeletal remains of a large beast that could have been something draconian. Past this, I slide down a stone slope, turn around to look behind me to my right, and find another giant skeleton, which I also easily kill; a corpse bearing a medium-sized soulmass is my reward. Down another slide, I find _two_ giant skeletons around to my right; I fight them, and they both end up jumping sideways to their deaths. When I go past this to explore this ledge, I go a bit further than I intended, and a third slide brings me far lower than I wanted to go. I start climbing back up, and that's when the clanking sounds I've been hearing finally prove to be what I feared: arrows. _Giant_ arrows, at that - not javelins, as in Anor Londo, just really big arrows. Climbing up around a ledge, past another giant skeleton, brings me to one of the giant archers, which is, of course, yet another giant skeleton. These beasts are not much of a threat, and I kill it, climb a rope ladder, drop down to my left to pillage a medium soulmass from a corpse, drop the rest of the way to the bottom, climb up again, pillage a third medium soulmass, and fight two more giant skeletons. That seems to be all there is to this place.

Up two more ladders brings me to a ledge, which I jump down from to pillage three cursed eyes from a corpse - more food for Frampt (I'll be getting a _lot_ of souls after I kill the Four Kings). I jump down, climb up again, crest a ledge with yet another corpse bearing a medium soulmass, and then find myself dropping down to the place where I started. I'm out of spare uses of my lighting spell, I need to find a bonfire fast; she guides my feet down the slope I accidentally descended before, turns me left, and I slide down a ladder to a small ledge with a bonfire. Gratefully, I sit down and restore my uses of the spell.

That's all I need to do at the moment, so I climb the ladder, and notice, to my left, one last glowing pebble, right next to a bald Undead who isn't Hollow. This seems like an odd place for a person, so I approach him cautiously.

"Hello?" I ask him.

"Good day," he says cheerfully. "You look relatively sane. What are you doing in the Catacombs?" He hesitates, then asks, "You're not a cleric or something, are you?"

"No, I am not," I reply.

"No? Really?" he asks, and I'm not sure what this means. "Then I have no qualms telling you. There's a fine stash of treasure right down that hole! I found it first, but we're friends now! Go on, take a peek. It'll shimmer you blind!" He says this last sentence in an odd tone, and then gives a nasty chuckle. I do not trust this man.

"Who are you?" I ask.

"There, that hole," he urges me. "Take a closer look."

I glare at him suspiciously, but slowly walk over to the shimmering purple pebble on the edge of a small peninsula of rock jutting out over a pit and bend down. Looking down, I do see the glows of a couple of bodies bearing soulmasses, and something else as well. Having seen all I can see from here, I start to stand, when suddenly, I feel a foot on my back, and I'm thrust forward; I fall, and land on the ground heavily on my front.

From above, I hear laughter. "This is what I do, my friend!" calls the Undead. "The trinkets I'll be stripping off your corpse; that's the real treasure!" He laughs again.

Unharmed, I stand up and brush myself off. Two of the corpses down here do indeed bear medium-sized soulmasses; the third carries the Skull Lantern, a tool specifically made for exploring this place. My hands are already occupied, though, so I tuck it away and use Cast Light; I need to find a way out of here.

At first, I find only some bones. Then, next to one skeletal remnant of some beast, I find a white-clad woman sitting against a pillar of stone - the woman Petrus was supposed to look after, the one I met briefly in Firelink Shrine. Remembering I was going to be keeping an eye out for her anyway, I approach her.

"Are you all right?" I ask.

"You're no Hollow, are you?" she asks at the sight of me. "Thank goodness. Please be careful. There are two fierce Hollows not far from here. They were once brave knights…my former escorts." Her voice begins to crack. "Who would let such strong spirits be Hollowed so?" she laments. "Heavens…Is there nothing…Nothing at all to be done?"

"I'll take care of them," I tell her.

Then, I move on. A little ways past the maiden, I'm attacked by a knight wielding a greataxe, followed by a knight wielding a mace - Vince and Nico, the woman's escorts. They are indeed Hollow, and mindlessly try to kill me; I cut them both down with such ease, I almost wonder if I should feel bad. Once they're both down, I return to the woman.

"It's okay," I tell her gently. "They're gone."

"You banished those two Hollows, did you?" she asks, her voice wavering. "It pains me to think of the trouble my failings have caused. I am certain both Vince and Nico are grateful to you. Thank you so very much. Here, these belonged to them. You deserve them more than I."

She holds out her hand, and from it, I gain a Miracle spell - Replenishment, a very useful magic no matter what the case may be, though I can't use it. Somehow, I know she'll be safe, and able to get out of here on her own; I carry on my way, to finish exploring this place.

Up a narrow slope, I find a corpse carrying a white chunk of titanite. Once I take it, I hear a strange noise, sort of similar to the sound of a plant monster coming out of the ground in the forest; I turn around, and see pillars of bones stuck together with black goop slowly moving along the ground towards me. Three strikes from my sword is what it takes to kill them; they sometimes stick out skeletal arms all along their length and move in a sort of tiny dance, whirling the bony appendages around - this hurts. There are two at the base of the slope, and two more around to my left; when I find my way out of this pit, three more appear. At one point, I'm certain I'm dead, but somehow survive; then, I take them all down. Beyond this is a rope ladder, which I climb. At the top is a cave that seems to be immediately blocked off by a wall; I strike it, certain it's an illusion, and it is. Then I follow a narrow ledge around a cliff, descend the rope ladder to the bonfire, and rest.

Now that I have all my uses of Cast Light back, I intend to confront that Undead who tricked me. He's right there, so I climb the ladder and approach him.

"Hey!" I call at him angrily.

"…Oh. You. I…" he stammers.

I glare at him.

"Well, let's just calm down," he says nervously. "Talk about things…I did you wrong. But, I didn't mean it. These…temptations, they can, well, overcome me…You know what I mean? Don't you? Please forgive me. You and me, we're jolly Undead outcasts, aren't we?" He ends this with a nervous smile.

"No," I reply, unamused.

"Oh for heaven's sake, let's not mope about, eh?" he says. "You're still alive, I've said I'm sorry! Wait, I know! Here, take this. It proves something, doesn't it?" He holds out his hand; in it is a Twin Humanities sprite. I take it, and he chuckles wickedly.

"This proves nothing," I tell him sternly, certain that he's in no way trustworthy. "I'll let you live for now, but I'll have my eye out for you in the future."

He shrinks back slightly. "I did you wrong, but I didn't mean it," he repeats timidly. "These…temptations, they can…well, overcome me…You know what I mean? Don't you? Please, forgive me."

"I do not forgive you," I tell him, but I don't waste my time with him anymore.

Firstly, I return to the bonfire to replenish my uses of Cast Light. Then, I start to walk past the Undead. Here's where she tells me to stop, that it's not worth it - go back, she says, there's something back a ways that I'll find useful. As always, I trust her. I go back up the ledge where I came before, pass the exit to the pit, and come upon the roof of a building with a small opening in the top; a ladder leads down in, but I simply jump. Several giant skeletons come at the wall of the ledge I'm standing on - three, in fact. For a moment, I deliberate; then, confidently, I jump down, sword-first. Moments later, I'm dead.

Okay, so this won't be that easy. She reassures me through the fire that there is something there worth getting, so I climb back up to try again. My death spot is still up here for me to recover, and then I start trying to use magic. It turns out that the ledge I'm on actually juts out _from_ the wall slightly, leaving an overhang under which the giant skeletons can hide from my spells. After some vain attempts at attacking the wall, however, they eventually give up, and this is what gives me the opportunity to attack. I miss as often as not, due to the poor lighting of this place, but eventually, two giant skeletons are dead from my magic, and only one is within my sight; I decide to kill this third with my blade. Trying this turns out to be a mistake, however; I don't kill it with a diving blow, and before I know it, a second giant skeleton and then even a third appear and kill me.

Only now does she inform me that the bonfire I'm using is one I can return to, and urges me to return to Firelink Shrine _right_ _now_ ; I do. I run to Petrus, intending to tell him about "M'lady", but he only offers Miracles; I can hear Frampt snoring nearby. Confused, I follow where she guides me, and take the lift up to the Undead Parish. Inside, at the alter where I found the first Fire Keeper Soul, I find the woman, kneeling before the alter and statue, her hands clasped in prayer.

"Hello," I say, approaching her. "I'm glad to see you made it out."

"Hello…I will never forget what you did," she says softly. "I am deeply indebted, for it was not within my power to save Vince or Nico. I cannot thank you enough. In case you have not heard, I am Reah of Thorolund. I only wish there were some way I could help you, but I am inexperienced, and I only know the art of Miracles. If that could be of any help, speak to me again."

"Reah," I repeat. "Well, I don't have much faith for a knight, but I'm sure something you might teach me would be of use. Please, tell me what you know."

"Would a Miracle be of any help to you? I would be most pleased if that were so," she says, and for the first time since I've known her, she sounds almost cheerful. "May we discuss Miracles, then?"

"Gladly," I say. I take a look at what she can offer me - the soulmasses I collected in the dark cave will fund whatever I need. Unfortunately, I find that even Miracles that I would find very useful require a lot more faith than I have. Foiled in this regard, I ask, "What happened down there, anyway?"

"Vince and Nico were fooled by a lout named Patches, and turned into Hollows," she explains, saddening once more. "My prayers did them no good. It is my ignorance, my frailty that has sealed their fates. Perhaps Petrus realized my weakness all along, and thus made the decision to abandon me. I can hardly blame him now."

"I wouldn't think much would be expected of you, _M'lady_ ," I say pointedly. "They were supposed to protect you; _they_ are the ones who failed." I sigh. "I'm going now," I tell her.

"Then be safe," she says. "Farewell. Vereor Nox."

With this, I turn and leave. Again, I pass by Petrus on my way…something about him seems off. I stop to talk to him again, but still, he only offers to teach me Miracles - a sparse few, compared to what Reah knows. Something guides my feet around Frampt again, who is still asleep; where she tells me to look, though, I find nothing. _Something_ bad is going to happen, I can feel it, something involving Petrus…Do I attack him? I try talking to him again, and again, he only offers to teach me Miracles, saying nothing about himself or his intentions. That vision she showed me, of what Lautrec told her about him, and the subsequent confrontation, comes to the forefront of my mind…He indicated a desire to take advantage of Reah, and now, she's just a lift ride away from where he stands. No one has protected her thus far; perhaps I can do better. The poor woman has had enough trial - there's no need for her to know I killed this man who betrayed her, she can remain in the parish, praying in peace and safety.

My decision made, I swing my sword at Petrus.

"By the Gods!" he exclaims. "You damn fool! Enough of you; feel the wrath of the Gods!"

He tries many times to use a weak version of the shockwave spell the giant armor knights in Anor Londo use, one that doesn't hurt me; his shield is strong, but three good swings on him with my sword, and he dies. It's over very quickly.

"N…no…" he rasps as he falls to the ground. "This can't be…It can't end like this…"

"It has," I say, and he fades from existence. Two Humanity sprites are left where he falls, and I take them. I feel no shame; bits and pieces of certainty flash into my mind from my pendant that killing him spared better souls from terrible fates. Really, the fact that I cared enough to bother was more her influence than my own conscience.

Now I return to the bonfire at Firelink Shrine, and use it to warp back to the dark cave so I can try on the room of giant skeletons again. My death spot glows in the dark space; this time, three of them come to try and kill me while I'm above them, and with patience and magic, all three die. That leaves two more, but I can take on two - I already have, after all. I use Cast Light again, jump down, grab my death spot, and am attacked by only one giant skeleton; I defeat it after some fighting, then run towards the other end of the room, thinking there's only one left. As it turns out, there are actually two left; but, as I predicted, I can fight both and win. Eventually, all of them are gone.

Down here, I find a corpse bearing a large soulmass. At the other end of the room, however, I find the makings of a smithery, much like the one at the top of the tower past the Moonlight Butterfly; and, like the one at the top of that tower, the petrified remains of a smith, hunched down and curled in on itself, holds a white ember - this one bigger than the first. There is nothing else here.

Carrying my prizes, I climb back up. There are still places down here, even before the spot she told me not to go past, that I haven't explored, and I intend to explore. I climb back up the way I did last time…the giant skeletons have this stomp attack that I can't block, and which they really love, and it's annoying. Once I've climbed the rope ladder, I engage with a giant skeleton, and it stomps me so hard I fall all the way back down, barely surviving. The only gratifying part is when it comes jumping after me, and I later feel its souls rush into me as it dies, presumably from a second fall. When all the giant skeletons I've already slain are gone, I decide to seek out the other archer - for there are two, and I've only ever killed one.

Up and down again, killing the other giant skeletons - slaughtering the one highest up. When I run out of Cast Light magic, I use the skull lantern I found - it works just as well, but at the cost of not having a shield, though I'm able to use a shield when I need to even in the dark. Once I get down to where the archer I'm seeking can hit me and two giant skeletons are fighting me at once, however, I fail and die.

When I rise, I'm all the way back at Firelink Shrine - but at no real cost, I can just go straight to that bonfire down there with no trouble. This time, I use Cast Light, then immediately rest at the bonfire to restore my uses of it, giving me an extra casting. When I try to climb up again, however, a cheap shot from a giant skeleton knocks me off the edge of a cliff, and I die again, costing me over 30,000 souls. Now I'm mad.

On the next try, I recover my death spot with no gain, then manage to kill the first giant skeleton, despite difficulty doing so due to the two archers. When I'm fighting the first archer, a couple of stomp attacks kills me. One smashing attack and a bunch of arrows kill me when I try again. Then, at last, I get it, the first giant skeleton with a sword jumping to its death as though in pity, though it only makes me laugh. I _will_ find and destroy the other archer before I go.

Fighting the skeleton way up top near the entrance sees it jump onto a bit of bridge jutting out from the cliff; after it dies, I jump down too, thinking it might be another path, but it turns out to only lead back to where I just climbed up. When I kill the skeleton down the first ramp, I see that the body I pillaged down here was actually inside the brittle ribcage of an old dead beast. Down the second slope, and I have plenty of light; I win, after one of the two jumps to its death. I take a corner down the third ramp, and get to a corpse bearing a Humanity sprite; then, I'm back where I started.

Now I'm confused. I've thoroughly searched everywhere this side of the path she told me not to take; what else can there be? I look around the building where the old smith was living; the archer appears to be standing on top of the roof at the other end, judging from where the arrows come from. When I climb up the rope ladder again, I notice a place that juts out, and I wonder if jumping off of it will take me where I want to go - it's impossible to tell in the dark. I cast Fall Control and take the chance. It fails, and I die.

And now I give up. I'm going to recover my death spot, then return to Firelink Shrine. I've gotten so far off my goal of killing the Four Kings - I need to get back to this. All the soulmasses I've collected, combined with my death spot, ought to be enough to use at least once…After I recover my death spot and kill the skeletons, it proves to be just enough for one use. I use it, allowing me room for one more magic spell to have on standby, which I use to attune Hidden Body (just in case). Then, I warp to the Undead Parish to give the large white ember I found to Andre.

"Oh my, what a brilliant ember you have there," he comments when I approach with the flame. "I've only heard legends of such specimens…The ember used for the secret fires of divine smithing. Perhaps you could give it to me? I've long dreamed of forging divine weapons…"

"Of course," I tell him, handing it over; "it's yours."

"Ah-hah! he says, happily. "Splendid, splendid! Thank you. Andre of Astora never disappoints, I assure you."

"I'm actually all set for now," I tell him; "just enjoy it."

We exchange farewells, and I return to Firelink Shrine. Now, I _must_ slay the Four Kings.

It's kind of amazing, I reflect as I climb down again, how little I gained from that side trip - _one_ increase in the strength of my abilities, nothing more. Once I'm down, I remember that I am again out of cursed arms, so I take out the cursed dagger and get ready as I charge into New Londo; I momentarily switch out the cursed blade for my catalyst, so that I can use Cast Light to illuminate this dark, slimy place. Only after this do I realize I should have rested at the Firelink Shrine bonfire to fully refill my Estus Flask; but, it's too late for that now. At the end, the final ghost and the second-to-last Skull Knight both end up attacking me at once, and I nearly die from not being sure which weapon to use first. Ultimately, I come out on top, though. Then, I'm through the white light; I swap out my ring and run down, hoping to see the Abyss lit up by my magic before it wears off. Of course, the spell does wear off while I'm on the stairs, so I cast the spell again, then eat a green blossom and jump down; even despite my magic, the end of the stairs gradually fades into darkness.

As it turns out, the light illuminates nothing. The fight itself goes well at first - I'm killing the first wraith more quickly, and may even defeat it before the third shows up; when I'm hurt, I can take a swig of Estus in near-safety. At one point, however - at a point where I normally wouldn't consider myself injured enough to use Estus - the wraith wraps its many tatters around me like the mouth of the deformed dragon in the sewers, and having me thus captured, it sucks the life out of me until I die.

When I rise, it's at the bonfire above Andre's forge, as I feared; I return to Firelink Shrine, then sit down at the raging fire here so that I can fully recover. Then, I go back down again, with no intention of using more magic to illuminate anything. One of the ghosts up top gives me a fourth ghost blade; nothing else of note happens. I only have two green blossoms left - one, after I eat one to fight the Four Kings again - so at some point, I should probably return to the Darkroot Garden for more. In the meantime, I fall into the Abyss again.

Once again, the fight seems to go well at first. When the first wraith is near death, however, it grabs me up - after which I heal with Estus - and then grabs me up _again_ ; I recognize the little twirl it does that signifies that it intends to do this, but even though I back away, it chases me and swallows me all the same. With that, I've failed again.

There's one last green blossom in my inventory; once it's gone, it's all straight. I don't get to use it before a skull knight kills me, though - it's the second time I go down that I even get to eat it. That cost me a lot of souls, but at least, once again, I don't have to worry about recovering my death spot when I'm in the Abyss. One of the ghosts up top manages to catch me and cut my throat along the way, but it's nothing Estus can't fix. Nothing else comes remotely close to getting in my way, and soon, I'm fighting the Four Kings again. This time, the first thing it does is grab me up and start sucking out my life force; after that, defending against its massive, jagged sword is difficult to say the least, and when the second wraith joins in and starts using its own sword from the sidelines, I'm quickly dead.

Alright, I need to go back to the Darkroot Garden - and this time, I won't leave until I at least have enough souls to strengthen myself further. I go, and am soon in the cool, damp forest. The first plant monster I see manages to grab me and chew on me, but its little thornlike teeth do so little compared to how much they used to hurt - I _am_ getting stronger, there's no doubt of that at least. Should I start trying to get some more dragon scales in the valley of drakes, I wonder? They drop dragon scales, I think…

While I'm out here, I think I'll use one of the Humanity sprites I've gathered - I've been Hollow for a long time, I'd like to feel alive again. I stop at the bonfire next to the once-sealed door and do so. It's here that I also consider that, having left the Forest Hunter Covenant and joined another, those Undead will be keen on killing me again, so I won't go that way. I slice through plant demons easily, and the breathing trees are gone; the first lily-frog I kill gives me two green blossoms - so, already, I'm set in that regard. I'll get however many more I can, then go down to the valley of drakes. Three swings of my sword turn out to kill the metal golems, so I decide to kill everything out here before I do that.

Two more lily-frogs give me two more green blossoms, leaving me with six - more than I've ever had before to begin with. After I kill the other golem along this path, I go back to at last kill everything in the stretch of forest before the Moonlight Butterfly's old perch. One of the golems drops a stone greatshield for me (apparently, these things are stone, not metal) - more food for Frampt. I fear nothing, swinging my blade even when spellbound and outnumbered, and everything falls before me. I look through the forest for that one golem that surprised me when I nabbed the Elite Knight Armor, but don't find it; I guess it was the one in front of the castle, though that seems wrong…I go to that one, and then the golem I knew was somewhere sneaks up behind me - even with all my strength, two on one is too much, and they kill me. Oh well, that just means I get to kill everything a second time, including the lily-frogs. It's not until I charge out once more that I realize I'm already Hollow again.

One of the lily-frogs gives me two more green blossoms, leaving me with eight at my disposal. The plant monsters have been dropping purple and bloodred moss, of course, but this time, one of them drops a blooming purple moss clump. I kill everything successfully this time, as well as recovering my death spot; now, I just need to go to drake valley. But I'm getting tired…nothing urgent is going on, so I'll just sleep.

* * *

 **Note: Abrupt ending is abrupt due to an IRL interruption in gameplay.**


	35. Chapter 34

Anger burns in my Hollow chest when next I wake.

I rise, surprised at what I'm feeling; I'm not sure why, but I'm suddenly filled with a need to slaughter, to destroy. And what better place to destroy…than the world of that painting? Yes…I only have the one clump of blooming purple moss, but I also have 10,000 souls, and that near-Hollow woman sells all types of moss. I'll go find her - I'll walk to her, and kill everything along the way.

Blocking a certain vine attack in a way that causes stagger gets me an overkill bonus on one of the plant demons along the way; unfortunately, none of them drop moss clumps of any kind. I don't teleport through the bonfire above Andre's forge, and I don't take the lift, either - I walk through the parish and Undead Burg, killing everything along the way. It's fun. I kind of expect her to be upset by this sudden bloodlust, but somehow, it's almost as if she doesn't notice…

I get a shard of titanite on the way, as well as some junk for Frampt; I take the path with the undead rats, just in case one of them drops a Humanity, and lo and behold, one does. Still, I don't use the shortcut past it, instead climbing up to the drake's bridge and kill everything there before taking the long way back up and down through all of Undead Burg, not stopping at any bonfires or even drinking from my Estus Flask. The Hollows here are so easy to slaughter…it kind of makes my bloodlust rise even more. Another shard of titanite is among my bounty; at one point, a swing of my drake sword smashes some furniture through a wall, and the random destruction feels _good_. Why am I so angry? Also, one Hollow barely dies even though it seems like my sword should have fully hit it…I wonder if the wood planks between it and me actually served a purpose? Bah, no matter. Lastly, I also kill the Hollows near Firelink Shrine that are slightly out of the way of my destination, just to bring my soul count up past 16,000. Wow…about 6,000 souls came from that trip. I should do this more often.

The near-Hollow woman sells blooming purple moss clumps for a thousand souls each. Sixteen clumps, plus the one I got in the forest, should be enough for that mountain, shouldn't it? I buy the lot, not paying much mind to the words her soft, creepy voice makes. Now, the next question is, do I go to Anor Londo and through the painting, or warp there from a bonfire? For I have seen that place's one bonfire through the flames while moving between places. Since it's quicker, I decide to use the Firelink Shrine bonfire to transport myself there; I won't rest until everything in that place is dead. Also, on the way, I use a Humanity sprite, with which I restore myself before I make the journey.

It's a delightfully cold and dismal world, just like before. I hear crows cawing in the background and smile; oh yes, the birds here will feast soon. Around the first corner (I'm not taking the open door shortcut), I'm pleased to find one of the corpses that I cut down last time I is here, this one bearing another Humanity sprite. That prize taken, I climb up, slaughtering Hollows. The first two bulbous red things, I kill without much care; the first one toxifies me, but I don't heal myself until I also kill the second. Once I do that, and take a swig of Estus just because, I notice I somehow gained a humanity from something. How nice.

Hollows here even give me an overkill bonus if I block their broken swords with my shield first, and they already give more souls than most such ragged Hollows. I make a point not to eat a blooming purple moss clump until all of the red bulbous things in a certain area fall, as they tend to happen in groups of two or three; I also remember this place's illusion of multiple paths, and I take every path I can - and the few I skip, I make a mental note to go back for.

When I reach the spiral staircase that leads high up to nowhere, a rush of souls flows into me; I guess a harpy slipped and died. A second one greets me part of the way up, and a couple of blows from my sword sends it falling to its death, too. I'm still not quite sure how creatures that can obviously fly might fall to their deaths, but I won't question it. Funnily enough, the third harpy on this spiral staircase comes running for me, then falls to its death before I can even swing my sword at it! Aww, the bird-people are scared of me. How delightful. I find myself grinning like a fool.

Regular crows are waiting along the rest of the staircase, and they fly away as I draw close; the very top of the spiral stairs is a landing with a single corpse lying on it. There's a harpy standing on a crumbled wall ahead with its back to me; I swap out my cursed dagger for my catalyst, consider for a moment, then shoot a Great Heavy Soul Arrow at it. Unfortunately, I turn out not to be close enough to hit it; I put my catalyst away and search the corpse. It carries a red sign soapstone - a sort of invitation to other Undead for one to invade their world as a dark spirit. How quaint. The harpy still doesn't notice me, and I'm still out of range when I step to the very edge of the landing. Annoyed, and certain it will come after me if I turn my back, I take out my bow and shoot it. The arrows pass right through its body, and that's when I start to wonder if the creature is even really there. I sigh and take my drake sword out again; somehow, this movement alone sends me falling to my death.

Firelink Shrine is where I find myself when I rise. Ooh, that makes me even angrier! I will destroy that place…I use another Humanity sprite to revive my body, then return, once again killing everything I can find, overkilling when possible. I also start trying to use magic to kill the bloated red things; this fails at first, as one gets close enough to toxify me with its death spray anyway, but when I find one of the trio that doesn't fall with its comrades (after I cure myself), magic kills it quickly and effectively. When I reach the entrance to the staircase again, I turn back and take the path full of albino undead rats, just to be more thorough, and at last, I see how this path ends up overlapping with the other. The pseudo-maze layout of this place is interesting. I'm glad to be killing everything in it. Some odd grunts also happen here and there on the way, which I _think_ I determine to come from the albino undead rats; they set me on edge when I hear them all the same.

The first two harpies aren't nearly so obliging this time - the second one manages to catch me several times and peck me, actually, but now, I find I'm able to survive it, if barely. A swipe of their wings is the only other attack the things possess, and when this hits my shield, they recoil, giving me time to either heal or attack. The second harpy is also the first one to die so far before it falls at all; the third jumps for me. With that, I recover my death spot, and am halfway through this hellhole. On the way back down, I notice a corpse that I can only reach by jumping, so I cast Fall Control and jump; it bears a very large soulmass. Jumping back onto the stairs is also painless thanks to Fall Control - it really is a useful spell.

When I try to climb down the spiral stairs, I find that I cannot - it's too crumbled at one point - but a harpy notices me and turns and runs through the doorway behind it, presumably in pursuit of me. I turn around to where the rotting dragon rests and wait for the harpy to come to me, but it doesn't. After a little while, I get bored, and take out my bow, equip the Hawk Ring, and start trying to snipe the rotten dragon from far away - after all, it worked with the hydra. I hit it easily - the ring makes the arrow fly as if it has wings - and it rouses, one rotten wing dropping off of its back as it roars and crawls along the bridge. It reaches the outside landing, then stops, still plenty far enough away for me to be out of its reach. I start shooting the dragon in the eye socket just for fun, and by pure luck, this happens to do two to three times as much damage as hitting it anywhere else…that, or my arrows are doing more damage because the dragon is a lot closer, but either way, fifty-six arrows no longer seems like an inadequate amount to kill this thing. _Creak, twang! Squelch._ The rhythm of firing arrows at the monster becomes almost hypnotic.

All my arrows put together turn out to be just barely too little to kill the rotten dragon - but it brings me quite close, and I know, if I can get just a few hits on it with magic, it's done. I have to be careful about how close to it I get, though - the one in the valley of drakes may have gone down relatively easily, but I already know from experience that this one's stronger. Trying to get only just within rage to lock on, I slowly take the stairs one step at a time. Close enough to lock on, once again, turns out to be a bit further than a spell's range, so I take steps closer even after that, nearly falling off the staircase but not quite. I try again and again, and one of the spells hits it, but most miss; I move just a bit closer, and I fall into the area where it can spew its poison. My magic is doing a lot of damage to it, nearly twice as much as the arrows did in its eye socket, but I still underestimate how many Great Soul Arrows it takes to kill it. On the other hand, I get hit with the wave of poison once - just once - and hardly get hurt by it at all. A few more Great Soul Arrows, and it gives a tremendous roar and disintegrates. Where it was, there's now a dragon scale - just the one, but now I only need one more.

With the rotted dragon gone, there are corpses on this bridge that I can pillage. One contains a biggish soulmass; the other carries a bloodshield, a legendary weapon painted with enchanted blood that boosts resistances to poison, curse, blood loss, and isn't bad against fire or lightning, either - better than my Crest Shield, at any rate, though the Crest Shield is still by far the best defense magic, since that's what it was made for. I decide to try using the bloodshield, for now at least. With that taken care of, I run to the other end of the bridge, where I'm eventually stopped by…another rotten dragon? Something? It looks like some sort of rotten beast, but it doesn't seem to notice me. I'm unsure whether to swing my drake sword at it or turn and run. After a minute, I decide to run. Nothing happens.

Okay…I turn around again. What _is_ that thing? I said I was going to kill everything here…but does this count? Eventually, I decide to come back to it after everything else is dead; I go back inside, down the stairs that lead to the bottom of the tower. The harpy is back in here, and it jumps off the stairs - not quite to its death, but it's hurt once it comes back up and tries to grab me. When it fails because of the edge of the doorway, I make a leaping attack at it, then quickly hide behind the wall again so it can't grab me when it tries to. After its second failure, I swing twice, and it's dead.

The ground down here is littered with dead harpies. The doorway to the strange woman is still open, but I'm going to save that for last - I'll confront her when everything else in her precious, 'peaceful' world is dead. So, I go the other way, and now am finally faced with the blobby things with shields and spears clustered around the base of a statue. She fears them, but I just want them all to die; I have firebombs, and I'm going to try using them.

This turns out to be unwise. As soon as I'm in range, they notice me, and they all come off the statue and start slithering towards me in a big group. It turns out that they have spears which they can throw, and then pull new ones out of their fleshy forms to throw again. These hurt - not too much, but enough that a group of them is dangerous. My firebombs, meanwhile, somehow inflict damage on multiple monstrosities at once, though none of them die. When I run out of those and try using magic, I'm nearly speared to death.

Somewhat stymied, I hide behind a wall and reconsider my options. I could always go out swinging my sword, I suppose…but that would be suicide, plain and simple. The goal here is for _everything_ in this place to be dead, all at once - killing some now, using a bonfire for any reason, and then coming back for the rest won't cut it. I suppose I could…use guerrilla tactics - take one swipe, then hide behind the inside of the doorframe. It seems like my best option, so I try it.

As it turns out, their shields are strong, but their bodies are weak - two solid hits from my sword kills any one of them. They disintegrate upon death, and one drops a spear. The more I look at these things, the less certain I am what they are - they look like amalgamated blobs of ragged Hollow flesh and limbs with spears sticking out of them. It takes a while - and several drinks of Estus - but I eventually manage to cut them down, until the only ones left are too far away to care about me if I'm inside the doorframe, three of them in total. From a distance, I manage to shoot two of them with one Great Heavy Soul Arrow each; I run out, dodge their spears, then quickly kill both. With just the one left, and its inability to move fast, I dodge around to where it can't protect itself with its shield, then cut it down.

Now the courtyard is empty, with only the crows cawing in the background to stir the air. There's a sort of haphazard graveyard here; I find a corpse in it bearing a Humanity sprite. Opposite this place, past a few huge stone boxes with bars on one side and chains attached to another side (are they cages?) scattered randomly around is an entrance to a more open area - outside any building, I _think_. It's a field of impaled bodies on spears, but there are moving, killable things in it, so I proceed. The ragged Hollows out here mostly carry torches, though one or two carry broken swords; I cut them all down quickly. Dead corpses are also here to plunder: a big soulmass and two medium soulmasses are my bounty.

Then, there's a disturbance, and some runes inform me that dark spirit King Jeremiah has invaded. I look around, and see a red phantom with a headpiece nearly as big as its body. It attacks with a thorny whip, and at first, this seems doable. Then, it proves to actually be a pyromancer - some flame spells weaken me, and then a huge firestorm spell roasts me. I die, and return to the Firelink Shrine bonfire.

Alright, that was cheap. I'll kill that thing, no matter how - once it's dead, then I can go back to killing everything else in that frozen place. Only now am I realizing just how big this world is…I guess I missed a lot while I was trying to escape it before. Still, there are a lot of souls in it for me, maybe enough to help me defeat the Four Kings, and besides, I'm still feeling murderous. I revive my body and transport myself back, this time heading straight for where the strange dark phantom assaulted me.

Death spot first, Hollows second, dark spirit third is my plan, though I don't let any Hollows live that might sneak up behind me. The bloated things in the courtyard are back, and will have to wait - I don't think they'll chase me that far, and the entrance to the corpse field turns out to be far enough away from the statue to not even alert them. I end up having to kill the Hollows before retrieving my death spot, as I momentarily lose track of it. Then, I stand and wait, and the dark spirit returns. This time, I run at it recklessly, and as it turns out, this dark spirit has very little poise - one swipe from my sword breaks its concentration on whatever it's doing, so I just swing and swing until it dies. From it, I get some humanity, as well as its notched whip - a thorny thing used mainly for enemies that lack any sort of armor. More food for Frampt.

Well, that was an annoying setback. Still, there were a ton of souls in it for me, far more than even from killing the rotten dragon. Free to take my time, I look around, but everything in this field is dead or gone. Wonderful…now I just have to take those paths all around the world again. Still, at least the rotten dragon is permanently gone, so I won't have to worry about that.

This time, I manage to fully avoid the toxic death spray of the first pair of red blobby things. A ragged Hollow on the way up the first path gives me another humanity, so I now have three within me as well as the sprites I've gathered. And yes, I'm pretty sure the unnerving growling noises I sometimes hear are made by the albino undead rats - one gives me another Humanity sprite on the way. Also, between dodging and my new bloodshield, none of the red blobby things toxify me on this run. I'm also more observant, and across a gap in a wooden floor, jumping and smashing through some pots, I find a corpse bearing a gold coin like the one I found in Anor Londo, which I've actually passed several times. I'm still not sure about that rotten thing where the rotten dragon once was - it looks similar to the rotten dragon from a distance, but the dragon I killed is gone. Regardless, I _will_ return to it later.

In the tower, one of the harpies jumps down once, twice, but doesn't die; it's because of this that I notice a corpse I've yet to pillage, so I follow the same path, though I miss the body. Still, I don't die, and the harpy down here is also injured from the fall. I'm getting much better at fighting these creatures hand-to-hand, I can say that much at least. When I knock the third and last one on the staircase to its death, however, I follow, and also fall to my own death.

 _Sigh_ …I'm so close, and I will get this! I died with three humanities and over 80,000 souls, and I haven't absorbed any of the soulmasses I've gathered - this will assure me victory next time I face the Four Kings, I just have to achieve it, and I _know_ I can do it. I revive my body and go back again. I'm not sure why I'm so set on doing this while un-Hollowed…but I suppose it doesn't really matter. While fighting the group of four blobby red things, I slip, and take the alternate path full of albino undead rats first by mistake, but it all evens out in the end - and I'm still completely avoiding getting toxified, thanks to this shield. And then, just before I recover my death spot, the last harpy kills me.

I thought I was angry when I woke up by the bonfire earlier. That was nothing compared to what I feel now. The rotten dragon, and the dark spirit - those tens of thousands of souls that I never got to use, all gone. Sure, there are about 14,000 left where that harpy killed me, but what's that compared to what I lost? And _three_ humanities, as well! Such rage…Such deep, deep rage…I will _not_ rest until every last moving thing in that world falls still, and that abomination of a woman can see her precious world full of death. And then I'll kill her. It's more important than the Four Kings now. This…is _personal_.

The field of corpses is where I start out this time, in the vain hope that the dark spirit might try to kill me again; but no. Still, every corner of this place that I exterminate everything remotely resembling life in is a victory now. An albino rat gives me a Humanity sprite, but that's far from enough to compensate for what I just lost. At one point, trying to reach a corpse that has stymied me for a long time, I jump off the tower into the courtyard, and somehow survive - I even find a little cranny in which lies a corpse bearing a big soulmass. The globs around the statue are awakened by this, though, and one manages to hit me in the back with a spear as I return to the start of the path; I survive. In the tower of harpies, I slip again, but I think I do so after I kill the one highest up; I run back through to be sure, and find that I did.

Alright, back to the globs - once I kill these, I can at last move on to killing things I haven't already killed! That weird rotten entity across the bridge still bothers me, but no matter. Fighting the blobs costs me a _lot_ of Estus, however - I'm left with four swallows and a fair number of scratches by the time they're all gone. Still, this leaves me free to explore new areas - I just need to be more careful.

There are two buildings out here that I haven't explored, one to my right, one to my left. I go left first, since right led to that sewer where the wheel was; I also peek around corners on the way to make sure I don't miss anything. What I find inside this building, however, is a large area full of wooden benches with a floor that looks slightly collapsed somehow, and a locked door at the top of some stairs. Okay, other building it is. Before I go there, though, I search around thoroughly first, and outside, I find a well with a ladder leading down in. It probably leads to that sewer area, so I won't bother with it just yet - but if it turns out not to be, I have it in my mind.

A balcony with a looted corpse on it proves I have not actually killed everything I've ever killed before - an ambush of four ragged Hollows that I'd forgotten about surprises me slightly, and hurts me enough to necessitate a drink from my Estus Flask. Three swallows left…this will be tricky, but I can do it - if nothing else, I have Humanity sprites to restore me in an emergency. The sewer is the only place left to go, so go there I do, descending cautiously. Once down, I proceed a half-step at a time, running into the left-hand corner when I can so that I have my back to a solid barrier. My shield up, I move slowly, slowly, hugging the wall to my left. Eventually, the spike wheel skeleton I can kind of see in a rare ray of light through the broken ceiling comes for me, and my shield is able to deflect it long enough for its attack to end; two swings from my drake sword kill it. Near the back of the room, I see a very unlikely patch of sunken wall that is a different color - I don't even have to test it, though, before a spike wheel skeleton (I think one on the other side, somehow) breaks the illusion. I run in after it, then get cautious at the last second, and though it manages to hit me long enough to knock my shield out of the way, I am not badly injured. In the ray of light where the first pinwheel skeleton was waiting, I find a corpse bearing a large soulmass. Having gotten everything thus far, I start walking along the wall again, but I'm less careful, and I'm soon mowed down by a spike wheel skeleton, surprised by a second, and slaughtered.

This is getting tiresome; but I've gotten so close! Perhaps, in addition to a Humanity sprite, I should absorb some of the soulmasses I've gathered and use them to strengthen my body so that this goes more easily. Yes, I'll do that…or not. All the soulmasses put together isn't nearly enough to use on myself. Annoyed, frustrated, angry, and determined, I return to the frozen world again.

The first ragged Hollow I fell gives me a humanity, which is nice but not very helpful right now. An accidental jumping attack almost gets me killed by a red blobby thing, but this is how I discover that whether I dodge or not, I can stand one blast of toxic death spray thanks to my new shield. Knowing this, I guess this whole thing wasn't a _total_ waste…no, it pretty much was. Still, this shield is really helpful. Another albino rat gives me a Humanity sprite, I get to the tower, kill the first harpy by luring it outside where there's more room, kill the second on the stairs, and the third by knocking it off the stairs and following it down where it's injured, blah blah blob things, blah blah field of impaled corpses, blah blah ambush balcony, and at last, I can return to the sewers to reclaim my death spot - and _not_ be an idiot about it this time - with ten swallows of Estus left to get me through it, so I don't have to be so conservative.

Come to think of it, I've never actually seen the exit to this place - I assume it's through the fake wall, but I don't know what's actually down here. When I dodge the first spike wheel skeleton, I try to attack it from behind, and this is when the wheel form of their weapon demonstrates its genius: attacking from behind hurts, though it doesn't kill me. Thinking I only have the one to worry about while I'm hugging this wall, I turn to open the illusory door, and another one comes up behind me and mauls me to death, giving me barely any time to register what's even going on.

Over 50,000 souls are in that death spot, as well as a humanity; I can _not_ mess this up. Honestly, I'm getting tired of this, _very_ tired of this, but that's part of why I have to finish it. Nothing of note happens until I reach the blobs of ragged Hollows - I accidentally get outside the doorframe with a fair number of them still oozing around, and here I discover that I can just run around them with my shield up, slash them from behind, and keep moving; no need for guerrilla tactics. I have a little fun scaring crows away in the haphazard graveyard I raided earlier, and while doing this, I find a narrow staircase that leads to an equally-narrow ledge with a corpse that's wearing a Ring of Sacrifice.

Oh. My. Gods. I take off the Cloranthy Ring and slip this on in a heartbeat - this is a miracle, especially if I manage to recover my death spot this time before I die (as I'm almost certain I will). I'm prepared for the second spike wheel skeleton this time and - _yes_ \- I manage to recover my death spot.

Alright, back to exploring this underground cave - it's not so much a sewer, it doesn't look quite artificial enough to be that, but it's a very wet cave. Using patience and intelligence, I'm able to get the spike wheel skeletons one at a time, and completely circumnavigate the room; this done, I explore around the middle, still being careful, and find another corpse, this bearing a medium-sized soulmass, which I tuck away for later.

Now, there's only the secret passage. I noticed when I looked inside it that one time that there was a path forward and a path to the left…I feel like the path to the left might be the one less travelled, so I'll take that way first, still being careful for spike wheel skeletons. When I get to it, I also notice another very obviously illusory wall to the right that makes this a perfect four-way intersection. I still go left, and am met by another spike wheel skeleton, which I have to chase back and forth through the cave, getting hit every time just so I can swing my sword at it. The left path turns out to be a dead end, but the skeleton broke open the fake wall, so I go that way. Inside, I find a left turn, and there's another skeleton; I dodge and kill it, then go see what it was guarding, and find a corpse holding a key. This must be the key to that locked door. Yes…I'm so close.

When I came this way, I noticed a second entrance a little ways past the first, also to my left; I go this way this time - it being to my right now - and find another fake wall, which I break open to find myself facing the entrance to this little tunnel network, into the bigger cavern. I do, however, also notice another way going straight past it, so I take that route next. It's a dead end, except for a right turn, that leads to a right turn where I come upon a spike wheel skeleton who's waiting for me, and which I cut down before it can do anything. Past this is some stairs, and a full staircase leads up into an room above ground where red blobby thing is just standing still. It's next to an open window, so for a moment I suspect a trap, but I swing my blade at it once, and it explodes in toxic slime and falls - somehow, I get an overkill bonus for it. There is no trap, and when I check the body, I find a powerful pyromancy spell. Interesting.

But where is the ladder that leads out? If that well didn't lead to the caves, where does it go? I search around a bit more, but I can't find anything. It's too dark down here anyway; I leave, then head for the well, just so I know what's there. Another wet tunnel, like the ones before, and which I do not trust, is what I find at the bottom, but when I work up the nerve to take the right-hand path instead of the left - because I think I see something that way - I find a spike wheel skeleton that's already dead. So the tunnels down there did lead here, and I just didn't find the way - not surprising, given how hard it is to see down here. Alright, that just leaves the one last place.

I climb the stairs and unlock the door. Before I step through it, I take a drink of Estus, just to be safe. A single barrel is in a small stone room, looking oddly out of place; I smash it, but nothing is inside. The only other thing here is stairs. These lead to more stairs, and more stairs…eventually, I climb out onto a set of bridges - ahead of me, a red blobby thing comes running, and I cut it down without much difficulty. To my left is a short dead end which I check just in case; here I find a high, narrow staircase leading up and back that forms the corner of the building, at the top of which is a red blobby thing shooting fire at me. Without pause, I run up and kill it, and evade its toxic spray; my reward is a harpy, which I lure back down and fight on the bridge. When it dies, it gives me a humanity, somehow.

Thinking that up might be my destination, I go forward; I look over a low wall to my left and see a floor full of things, and she screams at me that _that_ is my destination, and I'm to turn back for now. There was a decaying old door to my right, which I smash, and this bridge takes me to that corpse I once nearly died for; it bears Velka's Rapier, the weapon of the Pardoner. Nowhere near as good as the drake sword, though it is lighter and has magic strength as well. I then climb the stairs again, and find one, two, _three_ harpies; I try to run back down, and this does separate one from the others, but I get too confident in fighting it, and its wings beat me to death.

The Ring of Sacrifice shatters on my finger, and I'm back at Firelink Shrine with two spare humanities, an un-Hollowed body, and 86,000 souls - I'd say that was well worth it. I gain a lot of strength, and then return to try again; I still intend to destroy that girl's world and then kill her. This has been a good outlet for my anger, even if it's also caused me a great deal more. It's not until after I begin that I remember to put the Cloranthy Ring back on, but no harm done. One of the albino undead rats gives me a Humanity sprite, there's some interesting warfare with blobby red things on a ladder, and the second harpy in the tower kills me.

I'm officially tired of this - I'm not giving up, far from it, but I'm exhausted. I restore my Hollowed body at the Firelink Shrine bonfire, then simply lie down and rest.


	36. Chapter 35

Refreshed, I sit up - I don't even stand, just let the fire take me straight to the snowy mountain. By now, I know most of the layout of the entire place; it's time to conquer. First, I remember to empty out the field of impaled bodies, as it's a nearly-empty corner that I don't want to have to sidetrack to later. Once I start climbing the main path, it starts off a bit rough, as I've lost my pattern slightly and get hit with a lot of arrows. The bloodshield protects me from toxin, at least, and I'm soon back in my rhythm and return to the tower. Somehow, the second harpy joins the first this time, and when I lure them back onto the bridge to the tower and hide inside a doorframe to evade one's attempt to jump on me, it slips and falls - to where, I don't know. I need to watch out for it, and find it; _everything_ here needs to be dead. My death spot is also on a lower ledge, so I wait until I've killed the harpy up top before I reclaim it - it jumps to its death, so that's that. I do climb the stairs to the top to chase away some crows, though - it's a shame I can't kill them.

Carefully, I jump all the way down to where the first harpy ended up to find it and kill it, but it brings me to a spot just before the bridge anyway, so it's not too much trouble. Sixteen swallows of Estus are what I have to face the blobs of Hollow flesh and everything beyond; it's looking good. I notice the globs ooze along the ground like slugs, and they don't look too unlike slugs either, come to think of it…the first five, I kill with guerrilla tactics, and then I run out to kill the rest by dodging around; this costs me two drinks of Estus, which leaves me plenty for the spike wheel skeletons. Even the undead things have to die - every moving thing in this place that I can hit must fall still. Though the genius of the spiky design of the spike wheel skeletons' weapon once again proves efficient, and I get badly hurt trying to hit the first one from behind, it doesn't kill me. This time, I actually find the ladder, and even the red blobby thing that had the pyromancy spell dies again, once more giving me an overkill bonus. Having thus cleared everything but the last place (and the odd rotten thing on the bridge) with more than half my Estus remaining, I think I'm in a good position.

Once I'm through the door and up the stairs, I'm faced with a choice: Do I go forward or left this time? I kill the red blobby thing that attacks me at first, then check the right path through the door that's already falling apart and find nothing, but I'm unsure which direction I should go now. Left got me killed last time, with three harpies fighting me at once; I think I'll try going forward. Red blobby things _appear_ to be my only foe this way - another one comes up the ladder, and a third is spitting fire at me from below. She warns me that this is an illusion, that perhaps I should deal with the harpies high up before going down there; as always, I trust her. The red blobby thing at the top of the stairs falls, and when I quickly turn and run back down, only a single harpy follows me - the one that killed me last time. I'm more careful this time, and I kill it.

Now there's officially nothing left that I haven't done before. I'm excited - it took a lot of trial and error just to get this far, and I'm not sure this is the end of that. Once again, I climb the stairs, and I notice a set of stairs across the roof that leads down a short ways, taking me to a corpse I've noticed in the past but never been able to reach - it bears a Pardoner's uniform, like what Oswald of Carim wears. Frampt is going to have a feast after I kill the Four Kings. There are still two harpies up top, and I'm unsure how to approach them; I decide to try to lure one away, and if I get both, I'll run back down. Also up here is a big hole that confuses me, and I need to find out if it goes somewhere I've already been, but that will be later. I don't see a third harpy, so I try to draw the second over - I've noticed that when they prepare to launch at a person to peck at them, they can only fly forward, so I move to the side a bit. This lures it to the edge of a cliff, but when it doesn't immediately fall, I swing my sword at it; a mistake, as it turns out that this movement brings me over the cliff edge with it, and I fall and die.

Alright, another trial-and-error event, I have plenty left in me. Although…I wonder if I should take a quick trip to Anor Londo and get some more feathered arrows - I'm tired of wondering about that rotten thing on the bridge. Yes, I decide I'll do that - it's a bit of a risk, but only a bit of one. It's not until I'm at Anor Londo that I realize I could also go straight to Gwynevere's chamber…this would just put me in the path of a giant armor knight, so I choose not to go there. The medium-sized soulmass I found before will do most of the funding, as will the few things I'll need to kill along the way. Things here fall before me so easily it's embarrassing. Forty-five feathered arrows is my reward for going out of my way like this.

Back to the snowy mountain; I make sure to use the Firelink Shrine bonfire again just to mark my place, then return, though I could have just gone through the painting again if I hadn't wanted to be at Firelink. I almost forget to clear out the field of impaled corpses first, but I remember before I'm too far in. Using my newfound understanding of the harpies' grab attack, I trick the first one into jumping to its death, and have hope I can do the same to others. First, though, before I climb the tower, I swap out my Cloranthy Ring for the Hawk Ring, take out my bow, and fire an arrow at the rotten thing far across the bridge.

Nothing happens. I get a bit closer, until I think I know for sure the arrow is reaching the thing, but still I get nothing. Just in case, I actually go out on the bridge a little ways and try a third time. This time, when the arrow hits, I _hear_ something - a loud, ominous rumbling - but see nothing, and am not hurt. Deciding I'll get back to it later, after I recover my death spot, I head back to where I was.

Tricking harpies into jumping to their deaths is fun and easy; I don't even remember to put on the Cloranthy Ring until well after I'm done with them all, but at no cost. A bit of caution with the Hollow slugs sees me with sixteen swallows of Estus left with which to take on the guarded balcony, underground caves, and last building. One of the four ragged Hollows on the balcony with the stakeout is missing this time, and I wonder at it but can't do much about it. The spike wheel skeletons no longer pose any threat to me, not even when one fakes me out by walking up to me before it starts rolling. Looking up inside the final building, I see a low wooden ceiling; I don't think that hole leads to any place I've ever been before, so I'll have to jump down it once the harpies are done. Unfortunately, when I run up to kill the red blobby thing up top, I slip off the same ledge and die, losing over 50,000 souls and two humanities.

I _know_ I can get this - I've come so close, and there's nothing left in there that I don't know how to deal with. It's the Twin Humanities I use this time, as having a spare will increase the chance of me finding sprites on the albino undead rats. By chance, the first Hollow I kill in the snowy world gives me another humanity, so I should be all set. Hitting blobby red things through a stone wall is how I kill two of the second bunch this time, but when I kill the third, my sword starts to break - I haven't fixed it in a long time, it was sure to happen sooner or later. No matter; I use my gold powder and carry on. After this, a diving blow kills two albino undead rats at once; one of them gives me a Humanity sprite, so my use of the Twin Humanities wasn't entirely a waste. Not fighting harpies on a thin spiral staircase turns out to be the intelligent thing to do, as attempting to lure them away to a safer area leads to them falling off, usually to their deaths. None of the Hollows on the one balcony are missing this time, so I can proceed knowing that everything in my path is dead. I have eighteen swallows of Estus left when I get underground this time - seventeen, after I fully heal myself, but I don't do that until all the spike wheel skeletons in the open cavern are down, which costs me no injuries. One more swig gets me through the tunnels.

Once I'm back in the final building, going left after luring the second red blobby thing up from ahead seems like the smartest plan - and, provided I don't fall this time, I will have to see what's down that big hole in the roof. My death spot is well before where I died this time - it's _inside_ the building that leads to the branching path, somehow. Every time I come back from the path behind the decaying door, I hear what sounds like a harpy's death cry, but I get no souls. This time, I go back a second time in a row to see if I can figure out what it's from, but find nothing, and hear nothing this time. Once I'm back on the left-hand path, though, a harpy's souls flow into me, and I'm baffled as to why, as the one harpy I can see from here - the one I saw at the top of the spiral staircase, that I'm not even sure is really there - still hasn't moved. Maybe it was one of the three from above, and this means there are only two this time?

To find out, I climb up, and after I lure down and kill the first harpy, when I climb up again, I see _no_ harpies. The harpies up here were guarding a corpse, so I walk forward to pillage it, when _two_ harpies drop out of the sky. Confused and startled, I try to back up, and thus fall off that ledge once again.

Come to think of it, as I pass through this world again (I've lost count of how many times I've done this), it's already full of death, with all the impaled corpses. I wonder what that strange woman was going on about this world being "peaceful", and its inhabitants "kind" - nothing here indicates either of those things in any way. After I clear the tower of harpies, I go down to inspect some of their crushed bodies, and find one off which I can take an ear, as I did with Lautrec - a souvenir of reprisal, which I find very fitting. The Hollow slugs give me a bit of difficulty this time, leaving me with fourteen swallows of Estus to use in the final two buildings. Now that I think on it, the time one of the Hollows up on the stakeout balcony was missing, I killed six instead of five in the field of impaled corpses - this overlooks that, so I think that's where it ended up that time, not that it matters now. If nothing else, by the time I get to the last building, I can say with certainty that I've gotten very good at fighting the spike wheel skeletons.

While waiting for the toxin from the first red blobby thing to wear off, I run back and forth on the right-hand path three times, and sure enough, when I go to lure the second of the three blobby red things up here, the souls of a harpy flow into me. There's a bit of trouble luring the red blobby things this time, as its companion - the one spitting fire at me - climbs partway up the stairs and blocks its companion until I retreat, but the second one dies in the end. Now, this ledge up the stairs that has thrice been the death of me is one I need to stay mindful of, so I climb with that in mind. When the fire spitter down below proves able to reach me up here, I slash at the red blobby thing up top once, run back down, take a drink of Estus, and run back up a second time to finish it off. I succeed, reclaim my death spot, and run down the stairs to fight the harpy that follows me. It shouldn't be able to grab me, the way I move when it signals its intentions, but somehow, it does, and the little bit of damage I sustained climbing the stairs the second time is enough to cost me my life when the harpy pecks me.

Is it luck? It seems, as with Ornstein and his partner, that success at this goal will be naught but a matter of chance. Also, I'm running out of Humanity sprites - I have one more after this try, so I'd better hope that one of the albino undead rats drops one. Of course, there are two in my death spot (as well as over 100,000 souls), but those aren't very useful to me right now…maybe, if it comes down to the use of my last sprite, I'll get a Ring of Sacrifice from Oswald before invading again - given that I'm also out of gold powder, this would probably be wise. While combatting the first couple of red blobby things on this run, it's starting to appear as if they _throw_ fire, not spit it…I guess it doesn't matter. When I get through the albino undead rats this time, _two_ of them drop Humanity sprites, but I'll probably still get a Ring of Sacrifice if I fail again because of the repair powder and everything I'll have accumulated by then. Fighting a red blobby thing on a ladder works counterintuitively at one point - it drops without getting hurt - but I eventually kill it. A Hollow gives me another Humanity before I reach the harpy tower. This time, however, the spike wheel skeletons surprise me and kill me - costing me over 100,000 souls and two humanities.

It's just like last time. How many souls have I lost to this cause? More than 200,000, I can say that much with certainty. I charge in again - that was a stupid mistake that got me, it won't happen again, and I'm not getting a Ring of Sacrifice for 25,000 souls, not even if my sword breaks. Going through the albino undead rats this time, none of them give me a Humanity sprite, but I think I discover that they have toxin rather than regular poison. Lovely. Magic aids me against one red blobby thing this time, and none of the harpies fall to their deaths - the one from up top actually manages to climb all the way down to the bridge outside, which I didn't think they were capable of; the one that falls but not to its death gives me another chance to take an ear as a prize. The Hollow slugs give me a bit of trouble, and then I make it down and recover my death spot. I slaughter the spike wheel skeletons this time, except for a couple of the ones in the tunnels…climbing out of the well this time reminds me of climbing out of my cell block in the Northern Undead Asylum, and I'm surprised I didn't notice the similarity before.

At last, back to the place I've yet to conquer. What treasures will I earn for finally overcoming this place? This time, I manage to lure the fire-shooting red blobby thing up with the other two, leaving the room below that she's so afraid of completely open - but I know from experience that that can indeed be an illusion, so I leave it for now. The harpy puts up a good fight this time, and though it's close, a simple mistake gets me killed. That's okay, it just means I'll get up to 100,000 souls next time; I _am_ down to my last Humanity sprite, though, so I go up to get a Ring of Sacrifice from Oswald before returning, taking the longest, most convoluted possible way so I'll have enough souls to buy one, and I do it while Hollow. One of the Hollows on the way up gives me a firebomb, and when I pass the near-Hollow merchant's shop this time, I stop for a batch of repair powder, ignoring his words. Up top, I don't have to parry or even stagger the lower-level strong Hollow knights to get the overkill bonus, though the tougher ones still elude total slaughter; one even gives me another shard of titanite. Oswald notes my Hollowness, but I ignore him.

After I take the lift down to Firelink Shrine, I go to use a Humanity sprite to restore myself, and that's when I discover that I actually have two left; ah well. I also swap out the Cloranthy Ring for the Ring of Sacrifice. Then, I use the Firelink Shrine bonfire and return to the snowy mountain.

The Hollows out in the field of impaled corpses give me some trouble this time - a bad start, when I'm already annoyed. Not having anything invigorating me is an inconvenience, too, but I still go for as much overkill as possible. The Hollow slugs kill me this time, but since I'm wearing a Ring of Sacrifice, I don't care, and I head up to Oswald for another ring before going back again. On the way, I hear Frampt snoring, and I smile, still amused. The one strong Hollow knight I have to fight on the way up gives me a titanite shard, and then I reach the roof, un-Hollowed this time.

"Good tidings, thou art welcome," Oswald said when I approach him this time. "Laudable is thy dedication to sin!"

I blink. "Have I sinned?" I ask.

He informs me that I have.

"But…" I think for a minute. "Because I killed Petrus?" I asked at last, and I shake my head. "I feel no remorse for that, and ask no forgiveness. Just give me another Ring of Sacrifice and I'll be on my way."

Oswald complies, and I go back down again, donning the ring as I go. One rat gives me another Humanity sprite this time, but the first harpy falls without dying, and unlike the others, it climbs back up; I'm not expecting this, so I lure down the second without paying the first any mind, which doesn't fall at all, meaning I end up fighting two harpies at once. Of course, they double team me, and I quickly die. Again, though, I have a Ring of Sacrifice and plenty of souls for another, so I don't mind as much as I would.

"Greetings, and a pleasure to see thee again," Oswald says when I get to him this time. "Art thou in need of my assistance? Do not be bashful."

"I need another Ring of Sacrifice," I tell him, "that's all."

He gives me one, and I put it on and go down again. I don't think I'll ever attempt to invade the snowy mountain without a Ring of Sacrifice ever again - perhaps I might after I reclaim my death spot, but the way things are going, it's easier this way.

One of the early ragged Hollows gives me a humanity this time, and when my sword starts to break in the middle of the area full of albino undead rats, I'm very glad I got another batch of repair powder - I should probably fix everything the next time I'm at a bonfire, be it after success or failure, and even do that every time from now on. One clump of blooming purple moss is needed when I end up being ganged up on by red blobby things just before harpy tower, but this is no inconvenience. Chasing one harpy off a ledge forces me to backtrack a bit, but no matter. The Hollow slugs are more than a little bit annoying this time, but I manage to kill them all in the end. And so, with only a slight amount of difficulty, I recover my old death spot, putting me at two humanities and nearly 120,000 souls.

Then I keep going. The harpy doesn't fall to its death when I try to lure it by taking the right-hand path this time, though I try fairly hard. I don't give myself enough time between the second red blobby thing and the one up where the harpies are, so I get toxified, but when I run down, a harpy chasing me, I manage to get enough time to eat a blooming purple moss clump _and_ take a swig of Estus. Also, the fire shooter down below can hit me up on top of the roof this time around, but I deal with it. Since the second harpy is still up there, I get its attention with a Great Soul Arrow, then lure it down the stairs like I did the first; I'm careful, and I kill it, and get another ear from it just for fun.

Now the roof is clear, and I go to see if I can attract one of the hiding harpies without the other joining it. As it turns out, I cannot, but when I run down the stairs, only one of them follows me, so I still manage to separate and kill it; the second, I lure into jumping to its death. At last, I can investigate the corpse they were guarding, and it carries a Miracle spell called Vow of Silence, a spell meant to prevent all magic-casting within the effect area. This would be very useful against the Four Kings, except that I don't have nearly enough faith to use it. Next, I check what's down the hole, casting Fall Control first just to be safe; this, it turns out, is a trap, and I fall to my death.

Okay, I learned the answer to something I wondered about for a while, and I have nearly 124,000 souls and two humanities on me as well as an un-Hollowed body. As I said I would, the first thing I do is sit down and use my repairbox to fix everything - all of my equipment is getting kind of battered. Next, I strengthen myself, three times over; this still leaves me enough souls to get another Ring of Sacrifice, and even though I don't really need one this time, I go get one now to save myself a trip later if the need arises, though I'll use the Cloranthy Ring on this trip. I get an overkill bonus on the strong Hollow knight on the way up to the roof of the parish past the lift - sure, it involved making it stagger, but still. One of my ring spaces remains empty until I'm done killing the ragged Hollows, and only then do I remember to actually don the Cloranthy Ring; no harm done. Oswald again offers his assistance, and I again tell him I'm only there for another ring; it turns out, however, that I've exhausted his supply. This alarms me, and I desperately try to think of who else might have one; I can't think of anybody. Oh well…I _didn't_ need one this time anyway…

Empty-handed in that regard, I return. Interestingly, I don't notice any difference in my strength while fighting the ragged Hollows, though I ought to after all the souls I used. There is a difference with the albino undead rats, but only a marginal one, nothing of use. That's disappointing. I manage to knock a ragged Hollow off the edge of a wall it's hanging from next to the archer that shoots from just outside the building containing four red blobby things and above the main lair of albino undead rats, and I take that as a good sign. One of the albino undead rats gives me a Humanity sprite, so I'll be set in that department for a while at least (I'll try, of course, but I doubt I'll succeed in my endeavor this time). I also manage to kill two harpies that gang up on me at harpy tower (when the first falls but climbs up to me after I lure down the second) this time, and this also encourages me. Two of the spike wheel skeletons down below jump the gun and surprise me, but neither of them manages to kill me; a little more emboldening experience. However, when I get to climbing the last building, the fire thrower hits me a couple of times coming up the stairs, and when I kill it, the one down below manages to hit me with another fire blast, and I die. Even with my bloodshield and Drake Sword, I have noticed that I have an oddly low fire resistance…

Hollowed again. That's okay, I have several sprites; I use one, then go back again - I can and will do this as long as it takes. An albino undead rat replenishes the sprite I just spent, and when the first harpy falls off the stairs and doesn't die, I know to wait for it to climb up to me before going after the second. The third harpy in the tower gives me another ear to take as a trophy. I recover my death spot, kill red blobby things and harpies, and trick both secret harpies that used to guard the miracle spell into falling to their death; and at long last, there's just the one last spot to explore. I manage to use magic to kill the last red blobby thing at a distance - three Great Soul Arrows, and I only take one hit of its fire. Once that's done, I notice I gained another humanity somewhere along the line.

This spot she kept me from entering is full of crows - they're clustered around this one particular thing, which turns out to be a petrified man. I scare the crows away and check what he's curled up around, as he's in the same pose as the smith in Darkroot Garden and the one in the dark cave, and I find it holding a black ember. This is a strange, valuable thing - what it does, I don't know for sure, but it's a prize worthy of my struggles. Oddly, nothing else happens down here; she tells me that normally harpies swarm, but I guess I already killed them all.

At last, I've explored all of this place and killed everything in it but the crows. I have not forgotten that the bridge to the woman's lair had some ragged Hollows and even a black knight or two, so before I investigate the rotten thing, I will wipe out everything along there. After a short trip, I kill the Hollow archers and one Hollow hiding in a corner, but when I reach and alert the black knight, and turn away to make some room for myself, _four_ ragged Hollows turn out to have snuck up behind me from where they were hanging over the edges of the wall, and as I try to get past them, the black knight crushes me.

I was not prepared for that. Now I am…and since I know black knights die for good when they fall, I wonder if I shouldn't take care of that first, or at least after I clear out harpy tower. There's no reason not to try it - my death spot has tens of thousands of souls and three humanities. In fact…I think, I'll do that, recover my death spot, kill the black knight, and then rest at the bonfire here in this world - I can kindle it to full strength with the humanities I've gathered, and make use of the souls I've accumulated. I'll go for the slaughter after that - probably after I rest. An albino undead rat I normally kill with a plunging attack dodges my strike this time, somehow, and the second harpy - which drops to the bottom of the tower - gives me another trophy, and then I'm back in position to storm the bridge; I probably should have done this a while ago, but I'm doing it now, at least.

This time, I kill the second archer from a distance with magic, then keep an eye out for where the ragged Hollows are hanging in wait; the first, I knock off the side of the wall, and when the other three climb up, I quickly cut them down. Now, it's just me and the black knight. It wields a long sword and an eagle shield; the first thing it does is slam its sword down into the ground, a move I know is extremely powerful. This warrior is strong, so I don't take any chances, instead backing up along the bridge, only going in for a swing every once in a while. At one point, it manages to get the slamming-sword technique to hit me - from a distance I thought was safe - but I survive, if only just. When at last I've backed up far enough that I figure I might as well take this fight to the tower - where there's more room - I get around the inside of the doorframe and wait. As soon as it crosses the threshold, however, it holds its sword and shield aside, turns around, and starts slowly backing up the staircase in here, the opposite of the direction we came from - it doesn't fight back, and so I just swing and swing until it falls. It drops a large shard of titanite.

That was too easy…I feel like I could still go through and kill everything else in here - I'm at full health, and have a whole seventeen swallows of Estus still at my disposal. Yes, I think I'll go for it. After I kill all the Hollow slugs and empty out the field of impaled corpses, however, I realize I have just too many souls to risk - that strange woman might be strong. Plus, I still have the humanities to kindle the bonfire. So, I decide to return to my original plan: I sit down at the bonfire, kindle it to full strength by using up all my humanities, use the souls to strengthen myself, and then, without even warping somewhere else, I lie down on the snowy ground and rest. When I wake up, everything left here will die.


	37. Chapter 36

At last, at _long_ last, I pick myself up off the snowy ground and go in one last time to lay waste to this entire fake world once and for all. Just to be certain, after I kill the first few Hollows outside the entrance, I run back down the path that led up the mountain - I don't think there's anything else that way, but I need to be sure. When I'm satisfied that there really is nothing, I climb back up to resume the slaughter; I'm a bit too thorough on the way back up, though, and slip off an icy ledge and fall to my death. No matter.

I reclaim my death spot, restore my Hollowed body, and finally do resume the slaughter. One of the Hollows in the field of corpses somehow falls to its death - this costs me the overkill bonus, but overall, I'm not complaining. It's not until I'm about to finish clearing out the first building that I realize I forgot to spend souls on repairing my equipment, but I'm confident enough that it'll all last this one final trip. An albino undead rat gives me another Humanity, and the most interesting ladder-fight ever with a red blobby happens as I end up trapped between the ladder and the wall as it repeatedly belches strange smoke at me. It's not until I reach it, though, that I remember the strange rotten thing on the bridge…I decide to attack it right away this time, before I even clear out harpy tower; I do of course exercise some caution. A loud, threatening noise happens as I cross the snow-covered stone, but nothing else occurs. Finally, I'm facing the thing, and when it doesn't acknowledge my presence, I swing my sword at it.

Nothing happens. Repeatedly, I swipe at it, and still get nothing. Perplexed, I try to walk past it, and find that I can't. What _is_ this thing? Thinking it might be like the squishy thing in Blighttown - where it's taking damage even if it doesn't seem to be - I continue swinging my sword. An unintended jump attack causes the thing to stand up, but nothing more; even being able to see its legs and what I think is its head, I'm not sure what it is…a rotten drake, maybe? It seems to only have legs. Then I take a closer look, up at and around it, and I revise my thought: this might be the rotten dragon's rear half. But can it be killed? I try hitting it with Great Soul Arrows, to no apparent effect; I try turning and sprinting across the bridge, and nothing happens. There _does_ appear to be another bridge past this thing, now that I've made it stand up, but it's a fall…and I'm not sure if the fall might be deadly.

This is a new enigma; in the face of it, I almost forget my plan for vengeance and slaughter. I want to know what this thing is, if it can be killed, how to kill it, and what, if anything, lies beyond it. But I should…I should kill everything else before continuing - I'm not sure if there's a way back up from the drop. I resume my quest, killing the Hollows on the bridge to the exit when I pass the doorway, since I figure the black knight is gone. This, however, is how I discover that the black knight _has_ returned, unlike any other black knight I can recall ever seeing before (I've long forgotten about the one in Sen's Fortress). Still, if I can get it back to harpy tower like last time, it should be an easy kill. I do, and though it doesn't quite work like last time - it only backs the way it came - having it on the edge of its territory proves very helpful, and it's down with only one swallow of Estus as the cost; another large shard of titanite is welcome bounty, too.

Come to think of it, I didn't explore around where the black knight was - there might be other things living around there before the wall of white light; I run back to check, and find that there is nothing. My curiosity now thoroughly satisfied, I run back and resume making the rounds, taking on the Hollow slugs. One of the spike wheel skeletons tries to dodge around into the tunnels, so I have to lure it back out and into rolling into its usual wall, which takes effort; another informs me with actions that these skeletons do indeed have the ability to hit me with their own hands. The red blobby thing hidden through the sewers doesn't even manage to splash me with its toxic spray this time, though I make no attempt to dodge due to my bloodshield; the one at the start of the last area is waiting for me at the door this time, instead of at the other end of the bridge, but that's no matter. I try to lure the one harpy down to its death by taking the right-hand path three times to the end and back, but instead, it somehow ends up jumping down on top of me from above, leading to an early fight; I kill it.

I'm so close now…Three red blobby things and three harpies, and everything in this world except for that woman and the rear half of the rotten dragon will be dead. I use a blooming purple moss clump to clear out the toxin in my system after killing the last red blobby thing that doesn't shoot fire, then climb up the stairs after the red blobby down below that is currently shooting fire at me stops doing so. I don't manage to separate the last two harpies, so I do a lot of running back and swinging when given the chance; it takes me all the way back into the building I climbed up through and down one staircase, but I kill them both. The last red blobby thing is no trouble.

Yes…Yes, everything in this world is finally dead, and I have more than half of my Estus left. I just need to check what's at the bottom of that bridge beyond the rear half of the rotten dragon, and that'll be that. The legs are still standing when I get there, and I cast Fall Control and drop down…to the very same bridge that leads to the exit. Okay then. Nothing to it, nothing whatsoever. Time to face her. At last, I cross the rest of the bridge - I'm past where all the Hollows were, on the last, crumbling sections - and traverse the white light.

The woman in white towers over me, and again, I notice that she carries a tremendous scythe. Still, I am not intimidated.

"I've destroyed your world," I call to her. "Look now! Nothing here is left alive! I told you I would get revenge on this wretched place."

"Thou must returneth whence thou came," she says sadly. "This land is peaceful, its inhabitants kind, but thou dost not belong. I beg of thee, plunge down from the plank, and hurry home."

"Its inhabitants are dead!" I spit. I take a moment to circle her, get a good look at her, and again, I notice that furry white tail. It looks almost…like a dragon's tail. I wonder…

Before I begin, I take a look at the plank; sitting in a seat to my left at the very beginning of the plank is a corpse that wasn't there before. When I pillage it, I discover the very same outfit that dark spirit in the field of impaled corpses wore. Interesting.

Now…I return, size up my target, and swing my drake sword at that tail. It doesn't come off.

White light fills the area. "I expected as much from thee," she says mournfully. "Why dost thou hurry towards thine death?"

Then, she's invisible.

This whole battle is spent fighting something I can't see. I can see her paw-shaped footprints, so I can sort of predict where she is; where she strikes, however, seems all but random to me for a while. Eventually, I come to the conclusion that, once she's a certain distance away, she makes a jumping attack, then a second if I'm close enough, but this helps me very little. Her scythe is powerful, and two consecutive cuts from it creates a wound that bleeds - only for a very short time, thanks to the bloodshield, but all the same, it's concerning when it happens. Learning from observation, I figure out when I can take a drink of Estus, and I try to get around behind her in hopes of swiping at her tail again - I'm fairly certain it's detachable, like that of a dragon - but to no avail.

After a while, I completely run out of Estus. When I next take a severe hit, I wonder if this will be the end for me. Still, I keep fighting, and one last lucky strike turns out to be the fatal blow. She comes back into visibility just as she dies.

"Ahh…" she gasps softly. "But why…What seeketh thee?"

And then, she's gone, leaving a Twin Humanities and a shimmering golden soul. The soul tells me her name was Priscilla the Crossbreed, trapped in the painted world of Ariamis (which I presume is where I am). But was she trapped, or did she like it here? A bastard child, and antithesis to all life…these terms come to me in relation to her, but I'm unsure exactly what they mean.

Ah well. She, and everything else here, is dead; I have attained my revenge. Now, it's time to go home. Instead of jumping from the plank, I return to the bonfire, so I can head straight back to Firelink Shrine. The cawing of crows mocks me on my triumphant return, reminding me that not everything here was killable. Still, I have nearly 110,000 souls; I use them to strengthen myself, and the leftovers to repair everything in my possession. When I try to warp from this bonfire, however, I find that it's actually cut off from the others - my only option is to jump off the plank, as she begged me to do. That's fine - sure, everything's alive again now that I've used the bonfire, but I run past everything I can (including the black knight) and head straight for the exit; I got my desire, to destroy her world and make her see the desolation, then destroy her, so there's no need to kill everything again. I hesitate a moment - that fall still looks fatal - but eventually I plunge down from the bridge to nowhere, and then, I'm back in front of the painting.

There are, of course, things here that want to kill me, but I go around the edge of the room, meaning I only have to fight two of them, then run back up to the bonfire guarded by the knightess. This, I use to get to Firelink Shrine, where I then sit down momentarily to mark my place, after which I swap out some of my equipment so as to be ready. Then, at long last, I descend back into the Abyss to kill the Four Kings.

Without any any cursed arms to use, I have to use one of the ghost daggers on this attempt. Ironically, the bloodshield's many uses don't help me in this situation, so I swap back to the Crest Shield. Even though it's been a while, I remember the pattern - even how it's altered when using the ghost dagger - and I make it all the way to the door to the Abyss without taking a single drink of Estus, though I do of course need one to get me ready for the battle ahead. I then prepare a green blossom, swap out my Cloranthy Ring for Artorias's ring, get to the bottom of the steps, eat one of the bitter green plants, and jump down into the nothingness.

The fight goes poorly - there's no two ways about it. Nothing has changed. All of my work towards getting stronger has not served me at all. Is there nothing…?

And then I remember: There's one last corner of the world I haven't explored - that way in the dark cave, past the bald Undead, where she told me not to go. I think it's time to go there; I switch out my equipment to be more suited to what I like, and use the Firelink Bonfire to get down to the dark cave. I remember to use Cast Light, then stop at the bonfire again briefly to get an extra use of the spell; then, I go forth and see what she wanted to protect me from. The fact that I'm Hollow right now doesn't bother me.

That Undead is still there, but I ignore him this time; I follow the ledge where she stopped me before, creep forward, and find…a giant skeleton. Not like the others, though - this one is definitely not human, as it's on all fours and moves its jaw in an inhuman fashion. A Heavy Great Soul Arrow gets its attention, and one leaping attack plus one simple strike kills it. I look around, but see nothing else in this area; beyond it is a wall of white light, which I traverse. I'm soon being shot at by giant skeleton archers in the distance, and a little ways later, I find another skeleton beast; I run at it and hit it, then start backing up, and am surprised to see a black knight with a halberd join the fray. Luckily, the skeleton monster falls to its death while pursuing me along the ledge, and I get to where the wall of white light was for a bit of shelter against the arrows. The fight with the black knight is not noteworthy, and a jumping attack slays it; I get a chunk of white titanite for my victory.

Alright, this is not going badly. It could go a lot better - get me a lot closer to strengthening myself - but it could also be going much worse. Beyond where I was stopped last time, I find the giant skeleton archer who was shooting; past it is a corpse bearing a huge soulmass. Even with Cast Light, visibility in here is limited to say the least, but it does give me enough warning of those skeleton monsters to be able to use a Heavy Great Soul Arrow when next I find one. There are a lot of branching ledge paths here, and some slopes down into holes where there are multiple routes. One of the routes I take brings me to a corpse carrying an effigy shield; the next shows me that one of the 'alternate' paths was an illusion, as it was just a narrow pillar of stone cutting the exit in half. Beyond this, I find another skeleton monster, and though I use a Heavy Great Soul Arrow against it, my health is low, and when it charges me repeatedly, I barely have time to heal myself - it's a struggle, and I do my best, but it ultimately ends up knocking me off the edge of a cliff, and I die.

Thus, I have learned some things about what lies ahead of me; now it's time to make use of that. First, I get the extra use of Cast Light in, then go back to try again. My death spot isn't far, so I do manage to recover it, bringing me up to a lot more souls than I thought I had. A humanoid giant skeleton with a big sword waits beside a skeleton monster up ahead; I don't remember this, so I backtrack to see if I went a different way, and find that I did not. Cast Light wears off while I'm fighting the skeleton monster, but a lucky plunging attack kills it, so I'm not cost anything. Once I'm thoroughly lost, I follow a ledge and find a bonfire - I light it, but don't rest at it, nor will I unless I run out of Cast Light uses. A corpse in an alcove carries a white chunk of titanite - I'm starting to wonder what kind of weapon these colored titanites are for. Past this, a skeleton monster does a belly-flop on me, and I die.

If there's one thing I've learned on this journey, it's that persistence is the key to any achievement. She probably loved all this…and though I'm not as pigheaded as she was, I don't like it when things beat me - hell, I don't accept it. The giant skeleton archers are the only thing in this area that aren't a threat; the trick to fighting the skeleton monsters appears to be a bit more aggression - though I thought I killed one at one point, only for it to keep hitting me. I learn what signals the coming of their belly-flops, and this turns out to be an asset, as it gives me plenty of opportunity to strike back.

After I recover my death spot and kill the monster that killed me, I find that there are two more skeleton monsters just behind where the first one was - this will need to be handled carefully, especially as I only have two castings of Heavy Great Soul Arrow left. The third one manages to kill me, but I'm not sure how - my shield should have blocked it. Oh well.

Trying again. This time, I do pretty well, but by the time I recover my death spot, I'm almost out of Estus. I don't really have enough Humanity sprites - even including the Twin Humanities Priscilla gave me - to justify kindling one of the bonfires down here, so I should return to Firelink Shrine, then come back here again, and I do, taking the nearer bonfire that I just discovered. Unfortunately, when I return, I find that said new bonfire is not one I can transport myself back to directly.

Now that I'm fully stocked on Estus, I feel confident in how this attempt will go. Unfortunately, I'm immediately belly-flopped by the first skeleton monster - that's okay, my death spot is nearby and I can recover quickly; I do so. This time, it's a total slaughter on my part - rarely do I even need to drink Estus, I've started to learn these beasts' tricks so well. One belly-flop at the furthest spot I've been before doesn't even kill me. Down a ledge is another huge soulmass; the ledges here are getting kind of twisty and passing each other, and a little further down, I find an oddly round hole with a ladder going down. At this point, I notice also that the direction I appear to be headed in looks like open blue sky, though no light penetrates the area I'm currently in; I follow a long, narrow ledge out into partly-lit territory, and I find yet another wall of brilliant golden light. When I examine it, it's the same:

"Sealed by the Great Lord's power"

So I'll need to return here at some point as well.

The ledge goes a fair ways beyond this, but to no place of use. Going back up, I get the odd, overpowering sensation that I missed something getting down here. I'm very thorough going through this time, and though I do at one point see the gleam of a corpse I haven't pillaged, I have no idea how I might get to it. There is nothing else here.

From all this, I have gained enough souls to use once - exactly once. I make what I hope is the right choice on exactly how to use them, then return to Firelink Shrine. Once I'm there, it occurs to me that the black flame I gathered in the painted world of Ariamis should probably go to some smith or other…I'll try Andre, just as a reliable old source; I don't bother gathering souls, I just take the lift up, and run over to his forge.

"Hm?" he grunts at the sight of me. "show me that ember of yours."

The dark ember is in my hand, and I hold it out so he can look at it more closely.

"Well, I've never heard of a black ember," he comments, gazing at it. "Hmmm…How about leaving that ember with me? I find it strangely fascinating."

"Of course," I reply, and I hand it over.

"Yes well! Thank you," he says. "This ember really is something special." His eyes glaze over as he gazes as the black flame in his hand. "I'm already under its spell. I sense great potential indeed," he murmurs.

With that, I bid him farewell; I then use the bonfire above us to take me to Anor Londo - she wants me to try something. It's the giant's forge she wants me to go to; the armor knights outside the great hall give me a lot of trouble this time, but I eventually cut down the one I need to get rid of. At the forge, she guides me: Take the lightning power away from the lightning spear I found, then use it and the soul of the Moonlight Butterfly or the Soul of Ornstein…I go with the Moonlight Butterfly, since I've had that longer, and what I get in return is the Moonlight Butterfly Horn - a beautiful spear that attacks with pure magic and the end of which looks like the Moonlight Butterfly's two spiral horns. I don't know if I'll ever actually use it…but it's quite a trophy. While I'm here, I also upgrade my bow once more, as well as my broadsword, because I can.

So, I can turn these golden souls I've been collecting into mystical weapons with the properties of the creatures I take the souls from…My drake sword is still my favorite, but maybe I'll find something impressive from this discovery sooner or later. Come to think of it, though, that Everlasting Dragon down in the underground lake…well, it's a dragon - can I get its tail? She would never dream of it, but I decide to try; I warp down there from the bonfire with the Fire Keeper in Anor Londo, walk around behind the dragon, and discover the tail, which I couldn't see before. Either black fur or black spikes blanket the entire top of the appendage, I can't tell…I'm afraid to anger the magnificent beast, but since it's an immortal creature, taking its tail can't hurt it _that_ badly, can it? I take a breath…and swing my sword.

Nothing seems to happen at first - no indication of harm or irritation come from the great beast. Curious, I swing my sword one, two, three more times - and the tail comes off, leaving me with an enormous greatsword. I'm nowhere near strong enough to lift it, but it's a magnificent prize…I just hope I haven't offended the Path of the Dragon covenant by doing this. The dragon itself doesn't seem to mind, so I walk back around it to the bonfire and bring myself back to Firelink Shrine.

And now…I'm going to try to kill the Four Kings again. I _need_ this - it's the only way forward, and I need to do it, I don't care how. I'm a bit reckless with how I fight my way down there this time, so I end up using four swallows of Estus before I'm even in the Abyss, but I make it, swap out my equipment, charge down the stairs, eat a green blossom, and jump. The fight doesn't go as badly as last time, but when the wraith I'm engaged with grabs me up and sucks the life out of me, that's all I've got.

This can't go on, I need to keep trying - I once killed _two_ of the wraiths, at much less strength! But even as I think this…should I maybe go to the valley of drakes and try to get a fourth dragon scale? One last upgrade for this sword…it's the only thing left that I can think of. I take the lift down, turn right instead of going forward and to the left, and enter the drake valley. Actually, I…I think I might use the Moonlight Butterfly Horn down here - all draconian beasts are weak to magic, right? I also absorb one of my Humanities and my Twin Humanities - humanity boosts boons. Unfortunately, the Moonlight Butterfly Horn turns out to be a bad idea, and after I (barely) manage to kill one drake with it, I switch back to my drake sword. While I'm at it, I switch back to the bloodshield, too - it's better against lightning than the Crest Shield. The third drake's lightning kills me.

Now I have to go back down there via Darkroot Garden, so I can get my humanities to boost the chance I'll get a scale. It's just _one_ scale that I need! Yes, it's been 'just this left', 'just that left' for a while, but I do believe this will help. So, I get there, recover my death spot, and kill two drakes; the second one, thank the gods, drops a dragon scale. That makes four - that's enough.

I take the lift up to the bonfire and use it to transport myself straight to Andre's forge, no patience even to walk the short way up - as it turns out, I have to use both of the large soulmasses I found down in the dark caves to fund this, but it's worth it. Since I'm here, I also ascend my bow to +6 because I can. Oh yes…Now, I can win this battle, I'm sure of it; I even restore my Hollowed body before I return to Firelink Shrine, just because I'm that excited. If this doesn't do it, I don't know what will.

One of the ghosts on the way down gives me two cursed arms, so I won't have to use the dagger next time if I fail again. With two humanities burning in my un-Hollowed chest, I feel like I can achieve anything. The skull knights fall easily before me; one drops that dark energy again, and I toss it aside, though again, part of me wants to keep it. Then I'm there, and I equip myself and jump down once more.

My drake sword is _definitely_ more powerful now, by a large margin. However, I still have no defense against getting picked up and having the life sucked out of me - and since I have humanities in me this time, I discover the monsters' intention, as one gets sucked out of me each time I'm grabbed. Still, I'm able to kill the first wraith, without too much trouble; the second wraith kills me when I mistake a signal of a magic spell for a signal that it's about to grab me and roll in an attempt to evade, thus costing me the defense of my Crest Shield. Vow of Silence would be _so_ useful in this fight…but I'm one of little faith. Regardless, this feels like progress, and I go down again.

Since a ghost gave me some, I use one of the cursed arms this time, and the world _flies_ by. One swipe from my drake sword kills any ghost; one drops two more cursed arms on the way down, and one of the skull knights also drops a chunk of titanite for me. Then I'm back again. The fight goes even better this time, but I make a mistake in trying to take a drink of Estus at one point, and that's all it takes.

Getting back again is almost too easy this time - I make it with only a few scratches. The fight, however, goes poorly; I take too long to recover my death spot, so the wraiths gang up on me quickly, and at one point, one of them knocks my shield out of my hand while the other casts a magic spell, and that's the end of it.

I have achieved…so much…so little, yet so much. She tells me it's ok - to be proud of my accomplishments, and to not be ashamed of resting when I get tired. And I _am_ tired. So, I lie down by the raging bonfire that burns with the light of her soul, and sleep, ready to take on the Herculean task when next I wake.


	38. Chapter 37

Confident is not how I'd describe myself when I rise, but this is my sole endeavor, and I will make it. If enough souls accumulate in the Abyss for me to make use of, I'll figure out some way to get back here with them - maybe not a Ring of Sacrifice, but a Homeward Bone or something, I'll find a way. In the meantime, all I can do is go down again.

On the way across the bridge to the ruins proper - before I even reach the ghosts - a sound stops me. It's kind of like the snoring I heard that one time at the Firelink Shrine, the snoring that I now assume was being made by Frampt, but it's more distant…more ominous - it feels like an enormous monster is breathing down the back of my neck. Trying to listen closely, I stand still for a few seconds; then, I hear it again. After I remain where I am for another minute, I hear the first sound I heard, then the second - the first is slightly louder. Yes, it sounds like breathing, in and out…as I remain where I am, it continues to happen, with long pauses in between. For some reason, though, I'm not afraid, just curious. At last, I shrug it off, use one of the cursed arms I have left at my disposal, and proceed. Now that I'm listening for it, I continue hearing the sound even as I make my way through the ghosts. Once I'm down in the slime pit, it's gone, though.

By the time I make it to the Abyss, I'm just barely injured enough to cost me two swigs of Estus - but eighteen shouldn't be too little to keep me alive. This time, it actually doesn't take too long for me to kill the first wraith, and the fight with the second feels like the fight with the first has in the past. I can survive two consecutive attacks where they suck the life out of me, so I don't try to drink from my Estus Flask unless I'm not strong enough to withstand one, no sooner. After withstanding two consecutive life-sucks from the second wraith, however, and taking one swig of Estus that is immediately almost completely neutralized by a blow from the wraith's sword, I try to take a second, and one of the wraiths on the sidelines kills me.

Back to square one, but I felt like that went relatively well - it wasn't pure luck that I nearly got to the point of killing the second wraith, like the time I got to the third was, it was strength and skill. Encouraged, I hurry back down; I hear the breathing again, but I don't stop. One ghost on the way gives me two more cursed arms; two of the skull knights give me chunks of titanite. I'm beginning to wonder…if perhaps I _should_ use my Grass Crest Shield - not being able to catch my breath as quickly _was_ a hindrance last time. After deliberating a brief while, I decide to go with it; I wonder if there's a way to change how effective a shield is against magic?

It turns out to be the right choice. Being able to recover more quickly gives me an edge; combined with my new idea for when to take a swig of Estus, I cut through one wraith, two, three…when I'm engaged with the fourth, more wraiths are still spawning in the background, and I wonder how and why? But I fight on, and persevere…and then, at last, with a mighty roar, the wraiths all fall. From this, I gain a Bequeathed Lord Soul Shard - apparently, before the Four Kings fell to Dark, Lord Gwyn respected them and granted them a piece of his great Lord Soul.

Just as I obtain this shining piece of raw power, something rises up from the darkness, a short ways beyond a bonfire that has appeared far ahead of me. It looks like Kingseeker Frampt, but I'm certain it's not him. Unsure what to make of this, I use a Humanity sprite - I got four from my victory, but had a spare one anyway - light and sit down at the fire, and restore my body; then, I put away my weapons and remove my helm. Only once this is done do I approach the gray serpent floating in the pitch blackness.

"Hello?" I call to it.

"Greetings, Undead Warrior," the serpent says grandly. "I am the primordial serpent Darkstalker Kaathe. I can guide thee, and illuminate the truth."

"The truth?" I repeat. "I…I want the truth, yes."

"The truth I shall share, without sentiment," he tells me. "After the advent of Fire, the ancient Lords found the three souls. But your progenitor found a fourth, unique soul: The Dark Soul. Your ancestor claimed the Dark Soul, and waited for Fire to subside. And soon, the flames did fade, and only Dark remained. Thus began the age of men, the Age of Dark."

"The Age of Dark?" I repeat, confused. "But…this is still the Age of Fire…"

Kaathe nods. "However…Lord Gwyn trembled at the Dark," he tells me. "Clinging to his Age of Fire, and in dire fear of humans - and the Dark Lord who would one day be born amongst them - Lord Gwyn resisted the course of nature. By sacrificing himself to link the Fire, and commanding his children to shepherd the humans, Gwyn has blurred your past, to prevent the birth of the Dark Lord. I am the primordial serpent. I seek to right the wrongs of the past, to discover our true Lord. But the other serpent, Frampt, lost his sense, and befriended Lord Gwyn." He pauses a moment, then meets my eyes. "Undead Warrior, we stand at a crossroads," he states. "Only I know the truth about your fate. You must destroy the fading Lord Gwyn, who has coddled Fire and resisted nature, and become the Fourth Lord, so that you may usher in an Age of Dark."

The Fourth Lord? I thought becoming the next Great Lord, succeeding Lord Gwyn, was too good to be true…but though this is better, it also feels more right. I can sense the truth of Kaathe's words…in my very soul, I see my future. Yes…this is what I've been seeking.

Standing up proudly, I nod. "I shall become the Fourth Lord," I vow to Kaathe. "I will set this right."

"Very well!" he says. "I shall now guide you to Gwyn's prison. Be still. Entrust thine flesh to me."

I know what this means, and I hold still as the great creature rears back his head, opens his jaws, and takes me into his mouth. Being transported via the mouth of a primordial serpent is not as unpleasant as she made me believe, though it's certainly not the most enjoyable of experiences, either. Then, the mighty jaws open once more, and I am deposited in a small shrine, roofed by enormous roots and pitch blackness.

"This is Gwyn's prison," Kaathe tells me from beside the stone floor upon which I stand. "Now, place the Lordvessel upon the altar."

This, too, is similar to what my love experienced with Frampt. I wonder…

Up some steps, a stump hollowed out into a large stand - as if for an enormous bowl - sits between two flaming stone torches. The Lordvessel's energy flows out into my hands, and takes the form of the huge golden bowl I was given by Gwynevere; when I set it down, it fits into the depression perfectly.

Reverently, I step back, and watch as the bowl becomes filled with a frothing light. Then, all at once, an enormous beam of golden energy shoots straight up from it. I can see the beam traveling up through the hole from which Frampt first emerged. Then, visions appear before my eyes, one by one:

The wall of shining golden light I found beneath the dark caves fades away.

The wall of shining golden light I found at the top of the mountain next to Anor Londo fades away.

The wall of shining golden light I found down in the world of fire and lava fades away.

My sight clears, and a small fire has kindled within the Lordvessel. I sit down, and feel warmth wash over me, as with any bonfire. There's more power in this, though, and from it, images from her quest - images she would rather keep from me - appear before my eyes:

She traversed the stone doors beyond this very altar. A world of cinder and ash awaited, and she fought her way through black knights to make it to the center, where a structure still partly stood. Inside, she found the phantom remains of Lord Gwyn; she fought him when he attacked her, and she won. Once Gwyn had fallen, she moved to the center of the room, where what appeared to be another bonfire stood. But when she reached out a hand to kindle it, rather than kindling the bonfire, the flame lit on her own fingers. Wide-eyed, she watched as the fire consumed her hand, spread up her arm, and before she even understood what was happening, the flames enveloped her. They exploded outwards, across the land, and…everything was reset, prepared for the next Undead to make the same trip.

I'm left dumbstruck, not really seeing as the altar before me comes back into view. Things piece together in my mind, and I begin to understand. Frampt acted on behalf of Gwyn, and told any Undead who managed to ring the Bells of Awakening that they were to become the next Great Lord - that they would link the Fire, and end the Curse of the Undead. She was probably one of many, and like all the others, she believed him; and because she didn't know what purpose it served, she brought the Lordvessel back to him, and he had her deposit it here - signaling to Kaathe that, though she later defeated the Four Kings, she was not the one he sought. Frampt manipulated her into going into the Kiln of the First Flame, so that she would be sacrificed to further unnaturally perpetuate the Age of Fire.

Gwyn was a coward, and told those who followed him to lead any who might finally end his reign to their deaths, so that his precious Fire wouldn't die. Gwynevere told me that taking up Lord Gwyn's mantle would prevent further Undead sacrifices - but this was a lie, as doing what Frampt would have told me to do would have made me _into_ another sacrifice; it would be up to the next one to put an end to all this, and they would become more sacrifices if they listened to Gwynevere and Frampt too, in an unending cycle.

And that's why she's dead, why she's now in the fire.

Rage flows through me, my face gets flushed. They used her, manipulated her, lied to her, and sacrificed her to Gwyn's cowardice. No matter that she probably would have done it anyway even if she knew she had a choice - she was like that - they deliberately sent her to her death, knowing what would happen and not giving her any idea. Gwyn had his time! Like the ancient dragons, he was meant to fall one day, and he couldn't accept it, couldn't bear the thought of humans having their own time come, as he'd had his come long ago. He's the reason the Curse of the Undead happened and continues - his cowardice, his selfishness. How many others before her have died for this cause, this abomination? I don't care - what matters is that she fell for it, and paid with her very existence. I'll never see her again - never hold her, never hear her laughter, never look into her beautiful green eyes, never kiss her, ever again.

I rise, a different sort of fire flowing through my veins - a Dark fire. Not only will I end Gwyn's despicable defiance of nature; in doing so, I will avenge her, and by extension, myself. If I have lost her forever, then I will overthrow the one who killed her, and I will reign over all the world as the new Great Lord - the Dark Lord. My teeth gritted, I return to Kaathe.

"Very well," he says. "Once the vessel is filled with souls, the gate to Gwyn shall open. Seek Gravelord Nito, the Witch of Izalith, and the traitor Seath the Scaleless. Fill this vessel with their souls. Then, the gate will open…so that you may kill Gwyn."

Too angry to tell him I already knew that, I nod.

Kaathe pauses a minute, then asks, "Are you ready? Then, let us return to the Abyss. Entrust thine flesh to me."

Again, I hold still, and the primordial serpent swallows me. When I fall out of his mouth again, I'm back at the bottom of the Abyss. Still infuriated, I nod my thanks to the one who saved me from martyrdom, and return to the bonfire - it's the only way out of here. Only now do I even think to use the plethora of souls I gained from the Four Kings to strengthen myself. This I do. Then, I return to Firelink Shrine - I have some things to say to Kingseeker Frampt.

First, I take off the ring that allowed me to traverse the Abyss and put the Cloranthy Ring back on. I swap my shield back out for the bloodshield…then think. Gwynevere was the one who lied to me the most, really; I wonder if she has anything to say for herself now. My mind changed, I return to the bonfire, and use it to take me to the entrance to the queen's chamber. I enter.

"Hey!" I call to her.

She won't speak. Glaring, I kneel down, as that's the only thing that will get her to talk.

"O Chosen Undead," she says. "Thou hath journeyed far."

"You lied to me!" I snap. "Kaathe told me everything. What do you have to say for yourself, you daughter of a cowardly bastard?!"

"Please. Father's role thou should assume, and inheriteth the Fire of our world," she says, just like last time. "Thou shall endeth this eternal twilight, and avert further Undead sacrifices. Kingseeker Frampt, the primordial serpent, shall guide thee."

" _Liar_!" I shout. I jump to my feet.

"Now thou shalt go forth, chosen Undead," she says. "May thou be one with the sunlight for evermore."

"Are you even hearing me?" I cry. "Damn it, can you say nothing but lies? Speak to me, you poser!"

When she says nothing, the Dark fire in my veins rushes to my head. I take out my sword; when it proves impossible to run up to her, I take it in both hands and swing it at the ground. The drake's magic courses along the floor and strikes her. She cries out, and then disintegrates, all at once.

I wasn't expecting that. Even more, I didn't expect the sunlight that illuminated her from behind to fade, or the room to turn dark.

"Thou who tarnish the Godmother's image," says a voice I recognize. "I am Gwyndolin. And thy transgression shall not go unpunished. Thou shall perish in the twilight of Anor Londo!"

Twilight? But that golden sunlight, the sunlight that warmed me…

Though I could return to Firelink Shrine and give Frampt a piece of my mind, curiosity overtakes me, and I go outside, using the Hidden Body spell to get past the various guards. However, instead of giant armor knights, I see figures my size as I dodge behind the pillars. Outside, it's so dark…I can't believe what I'm seeing. Stunned, I descend the steps, trying to get back far enough to see where the golden sunlight once gleamed. Just before the bridge to the rotating tower is a knight in golden armor; I take out my sword and shield before I get close enough for them to notice me, but when they speak, the voice is unmistakable: The Fire Keeper.

"So, it was you, was it?" she asks, her voice unnervingly calm. "How dare you produce a blade on a deity? How did you get this far? I will end your suffering. It is the least I can do."

With that, I'm fighting her. I try to run forward and swipe her with my sword, upon which she parries and ripostes me, very nearly killing me; I take a drink of Estus, then raise my shield and wait. Her long sword glows with white light, her parrying dagger raised, and she strafes back and forth; I wait until she tries to strike me, and when hitting my shield knocks her off balance, I swipe quickly. This goes on, with no real variance - apart from the time she rolls away from me to re-light her sword, which went out, suggesting that it has some sort of magical enhancement on it - and she falls.

"…But how…?" she gasps as she drops to the ground, fading away. "This man is a threat…Master Gwyndolin…"

And then she's gone, leaving behind a Fire Keeper Soul. Good, I can use this to strengthen my Estus Flask - no need for Anastacia to know I killed a Fire Keeper to get it.

To heal the last of my injuries, I take another drink of Estus; then I run to the tower, still determined to see where the sunlight once shone. When I look, I see a green moon in a cloudy sky. It doesn't move.

The sunlight was a lie. Just like everything Frampt and Gwynevere said to me - just like Gwynevere herself probably was! All lies…all illusion and manipulation…

Fine. It's time to demand answers from Frampt anyway. I run back through the palace, casting Hidden Body again to be safe, and return to the fire I arrived at, my shield and sword withdrawn. I'll investigate this new, unveiled Anor Londo later.

Back at Firelink Shrine, I take a closer look at the soul I got from the knight. The Darkmoon Knightess, her title and name…she wore brass armor to disguise the ghastly form of swarms of humanity writhing beneath a thin layer of skin. Interesting. I go down and give it to Anastacia, and she uses it to reinforce my Estus Flask without a word. So much for the Darkmoon Knightess.

Frampt is still awake when I climb back up - I was kind of hoping to catch him asleep, maybe hit him to wake him up, but it doesn't really matter.

"Kaathe told me everything," I snarl as I approach him. "You killed the woman I loved! What do you have to say for yourself?!"

"You sorry fool," he says sadly. "You could not be the Chosen One. Enough. I shall slumber, until I am awakened again…" And with that, he disappears into the hole.

"You won't be awakened again!" I call after him. "I'll put an end to all of this! I will destroy what's left of the coward Gwyn, and you will bow down to me, the Dark Lord!"

There is no response to this taunt. Angry and disgusted, I turn around and return to the bonfire, and use it to transport myself back to the Abyss, to Kaathe.

"Darkstalker Kaathe," I say, approaching him. "I have seen the truth, and banished the liars." I hesitate a moment, then something - not her, something within myself - prompts me to say, "I want more. I want to embrace the Dark, my destiny."

"Ahh…" he purrs. "If you wish, I can grant you the art of Lifedrain, the legendary power of the Dark Lord. It can preserve your humanity while Undead, and cast off the shackles of your brethren."

My eyes widen. "Yes," I breathe. "Yes, give me that power."

"You need only enter the Darkwraith Covenant," he tells me.

A Covenant. I'll have to abandon the Path of the Dragon…but I don't care. My soul cries out for the Dark, I want everything! I place my hands together in prayer, and a glow surrounds me. Then, a dark energy - the same dark energy a couple of the skull knights dropped - flows into me. The Dark Hand, it's called - with it, I can summon a shield of energy, and suck humanity out of healthy Undead to use as my own. All Undead will be my liquid humanity juiceboxes - I'll never have to go Hollow again!

"Thank you," I tell Kaathe. "I'm proud to be a Darkwraith…and I will be the Dark Lord." I think a moment, then ask, "Have you really never tried to tell the truth to another Undead?"

He nods. "They failed me, every last one of them," he tells me. "They were strong, but saw not the truth. I am certain you will prove different."

"I will," I avow once more. "Farewell."

"Farewell," he says in return.

It seems, however, that I cannot feed items to Kaathe in exchange for souls, as I did with Frampt - and Frampt is gone, good riddance. I guess I have no way of getting rid of the useless junk I've gathered…well, even if he won't eat it, I take a step closer to him and drop everything I don't want - an offering of sorts, whether or not he makes use of it. The treasures piled in front of him, I get down on one knee and bow to him - the same bow with which I graced the illusion of Gwynevere, except that this time, I mean it. It doesn't matter that he is my servant - he showed me the truth, and saved me from those who would have used and sacrificed me. Then, I return to the bonfire. Now what? Now…I think I'll take a look at the true Anor Londo. I re-don my helm, take out my sword and shield, put the Dark Hand on standby, and return to the no-longer golden city. When I rise in the darkened, green world this once-golden place has become, I find the bonfire that the Darkmoon Knightess was keeping to be dead, though I was still able to warp to it. No matter.

First, I take out the Dark Hand, trying it on. It conjures a shield in front of me, one of whirling darkness - just like what the skull knights had. I guess this means that those knights were Darkwraths all along…which I suppose explains why I felt such an odd kinship with them. It's not a complete shield, though; I think I'll use the bloodshield for now, until I understand this Dark power better.

It's so dark here…I can't hardly see anything, this is almost as bad as the dark caves. Half-blind, I take out my catalyst and use Cast Light, and this helps - even more than it helped in the dark caves - but I'll still have to be careful how I proceed.

All of the armor knights are gone. There's nothing on this side of the city. As I check the left wing, though, I notice the stairs that led up to the mountain…I can enter that place now, and I think I will. This accursed place can wait a bit longer. The path up the mountainside is dark, but there are lights once inside the hallway beyond…and at the end of the hall is a Fang Boar.

This gives me pause. A Fang Boar…like the one I saw up in the Undead Parish. Am I strong enough to face one hand-to-hand? I'll try it - I am, after all, the Dark Lord-to-be. As it turns out, however, I am not ready - my sword does very little to it, and its tusks are brutal. I put up a pretty good fight, all things considered, but it eventually manages to maul me.

When I rise, I'm in the Abyss, with Darkstalker Kaathe before me. I'm Hollow…now is the time to use the Dark Hand. I sit down at the bonfire, and return to Firelink Shrine, where my useless acquaintance still sits. He's not good for anything anymore…I walk up to him, the Dark Hand filling my fist. But…I don't know how to use it! After being stymied for a bit, I switch it to my right hand in place of my sword, accidentally punch him once, and then at last, I figure out how it works. When I grab at him, however, it acts like another punch, nothing more.

"Lousy rat!" he exclaims, standing and drawing his sword. "I may be crestfallen, but I am not defenseless! Come here, you lousy rascal!"

I don't have my drake sword on-hand anymore, and I forget my shield. For a minute, I consider letting him kill me - it was an accident, after all, no need to end him. Then, I remember all the souls I left in Anor Londo, and with a sigh, I take out my tin catalyst and spear him until he falls.

"Hehe, not too shabby…" he says as he sinks to the ground. "I think you've done me a favor…"

For a moment, I stand still, staring at the spot where he fell and faded from existence. I did not mean to do that…but oh well, he was useless anyway. Speaking of useless, maybe Siegmeyer has some humanity I can suck out - he's still standing by the bonfire. Now that I know how to use this, I go and try it; I accidentally punch him, though, and still get no humanity. What am I doing wrong? I don't want to accidentally punch Siegmeyer again, so I go and try it on Laurentius. Or, I try to try it on Laurentius - the way he's sitting down, I can neither punch him nor suck out his humanity. This useless, lousy tool! Annoyed, I try it on Griggs, and this time, I get it. He gives an alarmed grunt, I bring him to my face, and suck out his life force, like I would water out of a cup. At last, a humanity burns within me, and I can use it to restore my Hollowed self. Pity about my acquaintance, but now I know how this is done, I will never want for the means to restore my Hollowed body. It's not until after this is done that I even remember that I still have four Humanity sprites left in my possession.

After I finish drinking from him, Griggs drops to the ground. He then stands up, looking a bit woozy but apparently not bothered - I'm not sure he even knows what just happened. My use for him done, I leave him be, return to the fire, and restore myself. I wonder…I wonder if I can suck humanity out of that Undead down in the dark caves? Oh, that would be nice…For now, I return to Anor Londo.

Part of me wants to try fighting the Fang Boar hand-to-hand again. Whether I do or not, I have to get those souls back anyway, so I decide to do it. I recover, then try keeping to its side and swinging; I think, even though my sword doesn't do much against it, it doesn't have a lot of health, either, so this is definitely possible. During this fight, I also discover that it has a hind-kick. Though I feel confident that this can be done, eventually, I get mauled to death.

Hollow once more, I rise at Firelink Shrine. I could suck more humanity out of Griggs, but I think I'll try that Undead down by the bonfire in the dark caves instead. He's right up the ladder, after all, so why not? If he's genuinely sorry, he won't mind - and if he's not, then he deserves it anyway. Once I'm in the caves, I use Cast Light, find him, walk up to him, and grab him.

"Oww!" he cries, as I bend over him and start sucking out his life force. He's helpless, and when I'm done, he falls to the ground, then stands up. Like Griggs, he doesn't attack me, doesn't even ask what I did or why; I don't think anyone really notices when they have life sucked out of them…how very nice. Chuckling, I climb back down to the bonfire, restore myself, and warp back to Anor Londo.

I made sure to bring the Fang Boar closer to the entrance last time, so that my death spot would be easy to recover; it is. But…I don't think I want to try the Fang Boar on again just yet - I have all of the true Anor Londo to explore! I turn around and leave. Back at the rotating tower, I turn the handle so that it descends to the lowest position - there's a bonfire down here that I can mark my place at, and the part up top will still let me into the building housing the mural portal to the painted world of Ariamis. Plans in mind, I go down and mark my place first…then think. Gwynevere was a lie, and Frampt has fled, but Gwyndolin is real, and he's right down the stairs. What happens if I kill him? I'd like to…all the illusions were most likely his, he tried to manipulate me, worked with Frampt to use me. The wall of white light is like any other, I'm sure - I can pass through it. Hmm…No, I go up first - just to see what's in the one building. As it turns out, however, everything's the same. There's only the castle…

Wearily, I return to the bonfire near Gwyndolin's lair. I am tired…I killed the Four Kings, and learned so many incredible truths. I'm also a bit slimy from having been in Kaathe's mouth, but that mouth informed me of my true destiny, a destiny of which I would have been ignorant - I can hardly begrudge it. Through the fire, I finally allow myself to hear her - I've been blocking her out until now, and when I listen, I see I was right to do so: She's crying, begging me to stop, to not fall to the Dark. I pity her…even when I tell her what Kaathe told me, she's upset.

"I'll avenge you, my love," I say aloud to the flames.

She doesn't want me to. But that's too bad. I lie down on the swirling patterns carved into the stone beneath me and sleep, feeling for once at peace with my own life, and eager to continue perpetuating Dark when I rise.


	39. Chapter 38

**It has been brought to my attention that, in my eagerness to post the previous chapter, instead of posting chapter 36 followed by chapter 37, I accidentally posted chapter 37 twice. This has been fixed now. Anyway…**

* * *

Revenge.

This is the only thing I can think when I awaken. She's still crying at me through the flames, begging me to stop, but she's too forgiving and she knows it - I won't let what they did to her go unpunished. Frampt has fled, and Gwynevere was fake; Gwyndolin is the only one left to hold accountable for the appalling conspiracy that has claimed so many lives, including hers, and would have claimed mine had it not been for Kaathe. So, it's very simple. I must kill a god.

No problem.

I rise, and march straight down to the wall of light below; I don't hesitate before traversing it. On the other side, I find myself in a vast hallway.

"Heretic," says the god's voice. "First thou offendeth the Godmother, and now thou see fit to trample the tomb of the Great Lord. I am the Dark Sun, Gwyndolin. Let the atonement for thy felonies commenceth!" With this last, the hallway I'm standing in glows ahead of me, then extends seemingly into forever.

"It's _your_ atonement I'm here for," I snarl, and when a thin, cloaked figure appears in the distance, I run forward. I barely get five steps before he vanishes and appears twice as far away as he was; unfazed, I keep running. Blue orbs of light begin streaming down the hall towards me. I hide behind a pillar that juts out from the wall to block the first wave, but I'm not expecting a second to already be coming at me when I emerge. The magic is powerful, and catches me off-guard; I die.

Nothing wrong with getting a feel for my enemy's strategy. Knowing what I know now, I should use the Crest Shield…

And suddenly, I realize that, even though it's dead - and even though I rested at the one just outside the tomb - the bonfire I've risen at is the main one near the entrance. Hmm…so there's even more to this place now that its lies have been wiped away. The problem now is that the rotating tower is down low, too low for me to reach from the bridge readily accessible to me - I'll have to go up the banister to the nearby building, through the open window, across the rafters, and out the other side.

"So that's how it's going to be," I mutter. "Alright then. Here I come!"

Dark fire still pouring through my veins, I make the trip. On the way, I swap out my shields, prepare the Dark Hand to be used as a backup shield in case the Crest Shield proves inefficient, and put my catalyst on standby next to my drake sword. I am not deterred by any means, and I will kill this liar. It's a bit more difficult to make the climb now that the fake sunlight is gone, but I manage. The white-robed warriors are a bit less compliant this time, using throwing knives against me instead of running at me and falling to their deaths, but even though I have to use my sword on all of them, I cut them down without slipping. Then I'm out, and I pull the lever and wait for the tower to come to me. Once I'm back on it, I rotate the mechanism the other way by hand, and return to Gwyndolin's lair - I highly doubt this is Lord Gwyn's tomb, as Lord Gwyn himself is not technically fully dead.

Though I know it won't mark my place, I sit down at the bonfire before the Dark Sun's domain rather than use a drink of Estus to heal the few scratches I got getting here. I'm prepared to use the Crest Shield when I reach the wall of white light, but before I traverse it, I decide to use the Dark Hand instead - I'm here on behalf of Kaathe, and I will use the power he granted me. Again, Gwyndolin calls me a heretic and declares that he will punish me when I approach; I ignore him and proceed.

The Dark Hand is just as good against magic as the Crest Shield, but a magic I didn't see before is Gwyndolin's go-to attack now - a straight, powerful shot of blue light. It oddly precisely half-kills me, even with the dark shield up, and it goes through the pillars with which I block the orbs of magic. Preoccupied with the strange new task of keeping the force field up, I don't think to try dodging it, and this is my downfall.

Perhaps, though I'd rather use the Dark Hand against him, it would be more prudent to use the Crest Shield for this fight. When I rise by the dead bonfire again, I switch them back out, then make the climb once more. Interestingly, though the bonfire is dead, it still seems to have given me the full 20-swallow refill of my Estus Flask. This setback is a convenience! The white-robed warriors go down even more easily this time, though I do still sustain a few scratches, and after I rest for a moment at the little bonfire, I confront Lord Gwyn's last-born again. He seems to enjoy calling me names and telling me I'm a monster, though he's the one who has sinned, whether or not it was on behalf of his cowardly father.

This time, I try to remember to dodge that powerful shot. I'm not sure how long I'll have to chase him before he's backed up against a wall, but I feel confident enough that it's possible. So, I start running again. Gwyndolin has three attacks: the spread of magic orbs, that magic shot, and a series of little darts that I block easily. As I chase him down the endless hallway, I find that he has to take a moment's rest after using the useless darts against me; why he uses them so often is baffling. He teleports again and again as I reach him, but if I swing my sword fast enough, I can hit him once as he transports before he's gone. Between this and the fact that the Crest Shield is somehow slightly _more_ effective against the magic shot than the Dark Hand, with only eight drinks of Estus to get me though, I destroy him.

"O Heretic, swathed in Dark," he moans as he disintegrates. "An eternal curse upon thee…"

Then he's gone, the magical lengthening of the hall dispelled, his shimmering golden soul in my hand. I'm tempted to absorb it - the amount of souls I get fresh from the victory isn't exactly a plethora - but I want to _use_ it, I want to make a weapon out of it with which I will kill my enemies, I want to use him as my own tool.

With the souls I got from Gwyndolin - combined with the cache I already had - I am able to strengthen myself a bit more…and I think I'll increase my faith. I have faith in something now - in Darkness, in the words of Kaathe, in myself. Then, I raise the rotating tower and walk across to the castle I must now explore. Before storming the main building, however, I take the side path to the giant's smithery. It's unnervingly empty out here, the pink demons as gone as the armor knights, but the giant is still smithing away, apparently indifferent to the darkness. He _could_ combine my catalyst with the Soul of Gwyndolin, but I like my catalyst as it is; surely, there must be another use for the Dark Sun's power. Instead, I buy three large shards of titanite and use them to reinforce my bow twice over - it's at +8 now, and with some more souls, I could get it to +10. So, with all of the true Anor Londo left to explore, I set out to gather the souls I'll need.

Firstly, I climb the tower in which the smith works, having forgotten where it goes; when it takes me to the great hall, I'm glad. Not being cloaked this time, some of the warriors I noticed before start climbing the stairs towards me - and they're all different, not goons but real people who have pledged to defend Anor Londo. Poor fools…do they even know what they're fighting for? It's two that come up the stairs for me, and though they're strong, they aren't _too_ strong. I manage to get a plunging attack on them, and for a minute, I think I've won; but when I fall to the floor, and a third one joins in, followed by the one I'm closest to killing two-handing his enormous black sword on me, I fall. That's okay; they'll fall before me in the end.

With the tower at middle height now, there's nothing stopping me from running right back in, so I do. Once I'm inside, I slow down, but nothing happens. When I decide it's too dark and use Cast Light, I can see the profiles of two warriors ahead of me - I think, the same ones I was fighting before. Their backs are to me, and for a moment, I think I might be able to get a backstab on one of them, but he turns around just in time. His partner turns with him, and it's two against one again. This time, I avoid the one in black armor, and focus on the other first - the fight ends up going out the entrance, as I make sure to keep my back away from both of them, but eventually, thanks to stagger damage, the first falls; the second dies soon after. From them, I get nearly enough souls to strengthen my bow one more time, in combination with the cache I then run in and recover - just a few hundred shy.

Before I start exploring, I try to find that third warrior I thought I saw before, but as it turns out, the great hall is empty, no one coming for me no matter how thoroughly I search the dark room. After a while, I begin think that that third one I thought I saw was just the second, coming around behind me and surprising me - there's no one else here, of that much I'm soon certain. I climb the side stairs and enter the rest of the complex, and start looking through the rooms one by one for more Darkmoon Blades - for that must be who these are, Blades of the Darkmoon, the sworn avengers of the gods. The two first rooms I find are empty, but up on top of the roof, I find a black knight in a cape - not a silver knight, as it was before, but a black knight, though it's otherwise the same; I cut it down in four blows without taking a scratch, and it leaves behind a javelin arrow. When I climb back up and explore the roof, I find the other knight, and in the moonlight, I discover that they may very well still be silver knights, it's impossible to tell in the half-light. We exchange some blows, and it falls.

Down the tower that doesn't lead to the room where Siegmeyer was before, I find another knight where they've always been, and in this light, I see it may very well be silver - though of course, looking at myself, I appear silver, too…these capes they're wearing, did they always have those? None of it really matters, I suppose. Inside, everything is as ornate and luxurious as before - that wasn't an illusion, at least, though it does only serve to taunt me with what I never knew in life and will never know in Undeath…although, I wonder: Once I'm the Dark Lord, will I be able to make my own palace? Maybe claim all of Anor Londo for myself? As I continue exploring, cutting down all the knights I find, I look everywhere - even the hidden basement - for more warriors, but find none. Just the two to defend the entire kingdom from heretics, then? What a pity.

That leaves me enough souls, or it should…I go back to the giant to see, and indeed it is. And then…then, the giant tells me I can combine the bow with the Soul of Gwyndolin, for just another 250 souls more than what I have, to form a magic bow. Eager to do this, I run out to find them, no matter where they might be, even if I have to briefly return to Sen's Fortress; I search the original path I used to infiltrate the castle and find nothing but the same archers, but there's no need to leave the city, for one white-robed warrior in the painting room is worth 300 souls. As I pass it, it occurs to me that that pair of metal doors along the way to the path I used to first get inside the main castle never did prove to have a purpose. Then I run back, and receive the Darkmoon Bow…which I don't have enough faith to use. Ah well, I can fix that - what matters is that Gwyndolin will be my slave in a tool for the rest of time.

The whole dark city exhausted, I return to the bonfire that sits outside the now-empty chamber of the sun princess and use it to return to the Abyss and Kaathe, as it occurs to me that I never did give the Lord Soul shard I got from the Four Kings to the Lordvessel. Kaathe's barely-lit face in the pitch blackness is delightfully creepy, and I smile as I approach him.

"What is it?" he asks. "I am your guardian. Go on, state your wish."

"Please take me back to the Lordvessel," I tell him.

"Very well," he says. "Be still. Entrust thine flesh to me."

I hold still, and the primordial serpent takes me into his mouth and returns to the shrine of the Lordvessel. Once I'm there, I run up to it and sit down, then offer the Lord Soul Shard. The meager flame in the golden bowl grows into a round, sparkling fire, and I grin. Technically, I could go from here to any of the places I need to visit, but I'd rather have Kaathe take me back to the Abyss, then go from the bonfire there - it seems more respectful of my guardian, somehow. She's still screaming at me through the fire, begging me to stop; I don't understand why.

"I won't stop," I mutter to the flames. "They used you, and they would have used me. Don't you see? They're the villains here! I'm only trying to set things right!"

In reply, she digs up some of my memories - the two near-Hollow merchants, and Laurentius, and Logan, all people whose existences were made better by the Curse of the Undead. Perpetuating the Age of Fire gave them that, she points out, and ending it to create the Age of Dark would take it from them.

"You don't know that," I tell her. "Perhaps the Curse of the Undead is what Lord Gwyn himself wanted to prevent by linking the Fire - a world where no man ever truly dies does sound like the Age of Men, doesn't it?"

Still she protests. I reach into the fire with my mind, my hand clasped over my pendant, and search her soul. It's not so much what I'm doing as why and how I'm doing it that upsets her - I'm angry, I'm hurting people and using them to further my own end, something she never did understand.

"I'm sorry," I tell her, "I'm sorry you don't understand. But this is my journey now."

With that, I stand from the Lordvessel's side, and return to Kaathe.

"Take me back," I tell him.

"Are you ready?" he asks. "Then, let us return to the Abyss. Entrust thine flesh to me."

He swallows me again, and then I'm dumped back out into the black void. I give him an informal bow, then turn to the bonfire and have it take me…back to Anor Londo - I've yet to truly storm the Duke's Archives. The Fang Boar is a challenge I've yet to conquer, but I have no reason to do anything other than keep trying. Only now do I register that I _am_ Hollow - in all the excitement of killing Gwyndolin, I forgot that I'll never need to go Hollow again. I have to go back to the rotating tower and bring it down so I can use the bonfire outside the now-empty lair of Gwyndolin, but I can also use one of the Humanity sprites at my disposal, and it's worth it. Instead of warping back up, I take the tower, just so I can get down here again easily if I need to, as I very well might. Then it's back to the Fang Boar.

I know that the Fang Boar's expansive side is its weakness, and I ride it and swing when I get a chance. It's a long fight, and it gets close at one point, but at last, I'm able to destroy it; from this, I take its head as a helmet. She used this as a helmet, too, got it from the Fang Boar up in the Undead Parish and used it since; I compare it, and find that it's actually quite a bit superior in a lot of practical ways to what I'm using, if not nearly as good for the non-physical, even if it's also more than twice as heavy. Still, I stick with the Gargoyle Helm, and continue down the hall.

There's a left turn where the Fang Boar was waiting, and this is an equally long extension of hallway lined with statues holding torches. When I get to the next turn - which goes right - I do not miss the shadow and the glimpse of the edge of a figure around the corner: another Fang Boar. I take a swig from my Estus Flask to bring myself up to full strength, then charge in, ready to repeat the process. Just past the Fang Boar is a room, but since I don't know what's in it, I keep the fight in the hallway - when we get too close to the opening, I run back around the corner to lure the metal beast back into the more narrow passage. This fight only costs me two drinks of Estus, and isn't nearly as close as the last; then, the Fang Boar is gone.

At last, I enter an actual room. There's some furniture in here, but I can't make out exactly what it's for; there's also a bonfire, which I light and sit down at. Some stairs lead up to a platform and a lever, so I assume that it's a lift into the tower I saw from outside; this is progress. I'm proud of myself, and not quite ready to take a break, so after I sit at the bonfire for a minute, I rise and continue forward, to find whatever awaits me here in the domain of Seath the Scaleless.

It _is_ a lift, that much I can confirm before I even pull the lever - a low metal fence walls off the platform that will rise, and I can see the grooved planks where the mechanism rolls up. Riding it, I'm taken up, and up, and then stop at a higher level. A few moments later, an arrow embeds itself in the floor where I was standing when I first arrived - it's lucky I had the foresight to move behind one of the walls that flank the entrance to the room I've come to right away. Then, small warriors that are completely crystallized come at me with crystallized swords and crystallized shields - they're pure blue from head to toe, and clusters of blue crystals sprout all over their bodies and tools at random. They're fragile - a few blows from my sword take them down, sparkly fragments spraying from each blow - but powerful. I run across the room I'm in and up some steps to the crystal soldier who's shooting arrows at me - a short pseudo-balcony of sorts, where there's also a blue crystal golem waiting on the far right side - and though I cut down the archer quickly, one, two, three crystal soldiers with swords swarm me, and alarmingly quickly, they overwhelm me.

When I rise, I'm beside the bonfire I lit on the way in, not the one in Anor Londo - besides that fact, there's more light in here, so I've basically left the city behind completely. I'm Hollow again, but I still have three sprites on-hand, and this time I'll be more careful. The lift is still up, so I have to go and pull a lever to the side of the short metal fence to bring it back before I can ascend again.

Unfortunately, the crystal soldiers revitalize each time a bonfire is used. Three of them meet me on the lower level of the room this time; there are pillars in here, where I take refuge from the archer while I fight the trio of sword-wielders (though it does get one very impressive shot on my face), and as I'm more tactical this time, they go down eventually. I only got five swallows of Estus from the bonfire down below, though, and this fight cost me one plus some hits, so I'll need to be more careful still. The two soldiers still up top cost me another drink of Estus, though I'm mostly able to stunlock them, and then I try on the blue golem - it looks like it's a brighter blue than the ones in the forest, though I can't tell since the light is different. To get its attention, I use a Heavy Great Soul Arrow; when this does little, I worry, but when my sword proves to put a dent in it, I get less concerned. Only a couple of attacks of crystal explosions manage to cut me, and when it falls, I get a blue chunk of titanite.

Okay…I've heard the crystalline sounds of spells being cast while I avoided the doorway to the next room, so I know there's a spellcaster here, as well as probably some more crystal soldiers with swords - and archers, she tells me before she can stop herself, several archers. I see pillars, though, so I should be able to take cover. After a moment of catching my breath, I charge in.

It's a library. Tomes line the walls, shelves of books stand out in the middle of the room as extra barriers, globes and tables and chairs are arranged all over the place. Even as I dodge around, fighting crystallized soldiers and trying to get a read on the spellcaster in the middle of the room, I remember what the Darkmoon Knightess said about what Seath the Scaleless did after he helped usher in the Age of Fire with Lord Gwyn. Under an impressive staircase on which a couple of crystal archers are waiting, I find a corpse with a large soulmass; I get one hit on the spellcaster when I catch it in the middle of the room, and then it teleports - and unlike Gwyndolin, once it starts teleporting, I can't hit it. Because of this, I have to climb the stairs, cutting down the fragile archers (without much difficulty), and chase it. It gets a good few hits on me, and by the time it's all clear, I'm out of Estus. Still, there's no reason for me to not continue forward, so I do; up the stairs is a whole set of library balconies lined with books, but I find another lift just behind where the stairs branch off to either side, and since I don't have much to spare for exploration, I just take it.

Up here - _high_ up - I start to get a sense of Seath's madness. Crystal blotches dot the walls and floor like mold - that something isn't right here has become clearly visible. The room I'm brought to is small, with one small doorway leading into a narrow corridor to the right; when I try to go down it, I'm met with another warrior covered in sprouts of crystal, but with a heavier weapon and…is that a clown mask? It's a plain white mask, with slits for eyes and a mouth - it doesn't look very useful as armor, it's just creepy. This one isn't completely blue, at least, the greens and browns of its clothes are still there; at first, when I don't know how it fights, I take a couple of hits, but after I lure it out into the small room and dance around it a few times, I learn the pattern, and I kill it, still with no Estus. At one point during this process, it starts strafing me, its shield up, for a good several minutes, no matter how close I get or what I do until I hit it, like that Hollow soldier towards the start of my journey. When this creature falls, it fades away like an Undead with a soul, and I wonder…

No matter, I continue on. The crystal blotches here and there start giving off spikes of crystal, rather than just the flat globs from before. Up some stairs, the crystal starts to dominate the stone, even partially blocking the path. A crystal lizard turns out to be here as well, and I kill it quickly for two green shards of titanite and two chunks of twinkling titanite - a huge boon for me. As the crystallization gets thicker and thicker, I keep climbing the stairs, and at the top, there's very little space left in the room without crystals blocking it up; to my right is a door blocked by white light. I'm out of Estus, and somewhat injured, but something prompts me to try anyway, so I step through the light.

Sure enough, Seath the Scaleless - a massive white beast, an albino dragon with no scales (and, apparently, no hind legs) - sits in a field of crystal. He has three pairs of pink, translucent wings that frame his form, like a fairy - he's actually kind of pretty. I wonder if he was trying to create his own scales out of crystal?

He roars, and spikes of crystal cover the floor - not too dangerous on their own, but the many blades add up. I try to run towards him, but discover that a slippery stone/crystal ledge keeps me from getting to him. When I find myself in a corner where he keeps trying to use the crystal field spell and it doesn't hit me, I take out a bow - the composite bow I found down in New Londo, not the Darkmoon Bow, since I'm not ready to use that, and not the giant bow, since I momentarily forget I have it - and start firing arrows at him. They hit, but do little damage. What's weirder, though, is that even the little bit of damage the arrows do doesn't add up - it's as if he instantly heals each time he's struck. Stymied, I put away my bow and take my sword back out; the moment I try to move, the crystal spikes impale me, and I die.

When I rise, I expect to be back at the bottom of the Duke's Archives. Instead, somehow, I find myself in a prison cell, crystal irregularly coating the metal bars. There's a small, unlit bonfire to my right, which I light and sit down at, but I can't teleport from it - it's cut off, like the one in the painted world of Ariamis was. I…am stuck. I'm also Hollow; the first thing I do is restore my Hollowed body, hoping this will help me think - I only have one spare sprite now. It feels good to be whole, but it doesn't help me figure out what I'm supposed to do. I know she knows the answer, but for the first time, she manages to keep something from me - she wants me locked up, where I won't hurt anyone else. But she got out of here, so I know I can too. For now…I've been questing for a while, and I'm getting tired. This is as good a time to rest as any, so I take it.


	40. Chapter 39

It's kind of confusing, waking up to find partially-crystal-coated iron bars in my face; but, once I process it, I remember what else the Darkmoon Knightess said about what happened to the Duke's Archives after Seath went mad: It became a dreadful place where horrible experiments were conducted. Is this still going on? Does Seath intend to experiment on me? To what end? No matter, I won't find out - I'll escape. Time to explore, see what's in here that I might be able to use.

This cell is long and narrow, slightly curved due to being inside a tower, and made of wood apart from the iron bars - and the iron bars only span a short distance before turning into a solid wooden wall. There are bars at the other end as well, and here, I find three crystallized soldiers. They go down without a scratch, but there's nothing else here. I go back, and find the door to my prison; it's locked, naturally, but just outside, I see a snake man guard, leaning against the bars, fast asleep, drool pouring from its open jaws. Is it close enough to hit? Even if it's not, I have a dragon blade; I take my drake sword in two hands, step back, and bring it crashing down on the floor, unleashing its power. My first two attempts miss, but the third strikes it, and kills it on impact - it crumples to the floor, souls augmented by an overkill bonus flowing into me. What's more, I can still reach it through the bars. I bend down and reach through a space where the crystal isn't too thick, and grab the key from the corpse's waist. This is almost like how my adventure began…

Moments later, I unlock the door and step outside. Where am I? The moment I'm out, a snake man somewhere far away pulls a lever that causes an odd mechanism to raise a record player, which begins projecting an odd, somewhat-harmonious noise that's more disturbing than anything; I think I also hear some doors opening somewhere. A couple of snake men run past me, ignoring me, headed for a ladder a slight ways up the spiral staircase I'm on. I walk to a balcony and look over the edge but see nothing…until several blue creatures, with dark blue-green bodies like two-tailed snakes and heads like cobalt octopuses without eyes, start attacking me. They unnerve me slightly, and I step back into my cell, where they're too big to follow; I then try attacking them, and discover that two swings of my sword kill them. Their tentacles are dangerous, though, as I can't block them - moving quickly is the best strategy. Of the four I kill, three drop Humanity sprites.

Taking a look again, I can see more blue things slithering back and forth on the stairs a ways down; I wonder what's going on in this place. Though I could climb the ladder, I head for the creatures, checking every single one of the many landings I pass, all of which are next to the door of a cell. The first cell unlocks with the same key that opened my cell and contains a crystallized soldier; the second does not open. Looking around as I descend, I find that all the walls are lined with books, some of which are scattered all along the stairs. On the next landing, the door does open with my key, and the cell contains two crystallized soldiers that nearly kill me; exploring the cell further, I find a hole that drops down into the next cell, and here I find a corpse carrying another key, as well as another crystallized soldier. Outside this cell, the blue things slither back and forth, but they fall easily.

That eerie noise is still playing, but I'm starting to get used to it. Down a bit further is a landing that is _not_ next to a cell, and there are no more landings before the ground floor. Four blue things slither about here, and in a group, they prove quite dangerous - also, they also prove able to grab me up, like the Four Kings, and hurt me somehow, I don't actually manage to see how; one of them keeps jumping at me to do this. When at last I'm done with them, I only have one drink of Estus left - the five I got from the cell bonfire has barely sustained me. Another Humanity sprite comes from one of them, and then I'm free to explore down here.

Nothing of immediate use is on the floor of the tower, though I look thoroughly; the center of the room is a mess of enormous, rusty gears that I'm not sure if they're part of a mechanism or simply heaped there. At the base of the stairs is a doorway to a separate room, and just past that is a ladder; I decide to climb the ladder first. Up here, I find the contraption that's making that noise, much to my relief - I'm getting a headache. Unfortunately, two snake men and a cobra man are waiting for me, and these are much tougher than the ones in Sen's Fortress; I fight my best, but they kill me before I can even pull the lever.

Up in my cell again, all is silent, though I know the noise will most likely start playing again once I exit. Immediately, I use one of my Humanity sprites - I now have five - to restore myself, then head out again. I still have my keys, so there's no need to fuss, though I do take the time to kill all the crystallized soldiers here, just for the souls. No blue squid things come for me, for some reason. The two snake men that passed me before run past me again, but the sound doesn't resume, which is a relief; perhaps that's why the blue squid things aren't here? On the way down, I also find the cell I couldn't open before and forgot about, and inside it is a corpse bearing a large soulmass. Through the doorway at the bottom that I noticed earlier, I find _all_ the blue things, standing in a circle around one in the middle and facing it. I try taking the ladder again first, and I also swap back out the bloodshield, since a cobra man with sharp blades is up top; it only took me one drink of Estus to get here at full health, so I'm optimistic. Recovering my death spot is easy, and with a bit of maneuvering, I kill them; at one point, the cobra man (at least, I think it was that one) threw something on the ground that gave off green smoke, but I have no idea what that might have been. Once they're all down, I'm tempted to pull the lever to the noisemaker, but decide against it. There's also a treasure chest up here, way at the back and hidden in shadow; inside is another key, this one probably to the exit.

I'm unsure how to handle the cluster of slimy blue creatures inside that one room. After some deliberation, I decide to lure them out one at a time with magic - I use the Heavy Great Soul Arrows first, then use normal Great Soul Arrows when those run out. The first one jumps at me in an attempt to grab me, but I run out of its way, then back in and cut it down with a single swipe of my sword; the second one hurries to the doorway, spews some sort of blue substance at me (which misses), then quickly slithers back inside, so that I have to completely kill it with magic. Most of the rest take the first one's approach, though there is a bit of variance with one or two of them. Soon, I've lured out all but four of the ones in the semicircle and the one in the center - I want to save the one in the center for last, as it seems significant, but I don't have this option. It turns out not to be significant, in no way unlike any of the others. Then I lure out two of the remaining four with Great Soul Arrows - I've long been out of Heavy Great Soul Arrows - without actually entering the room, as I worry that doing so will get their attention; with only two left, I feel comfortable about running in, so I do. A third creature in the very corner turns out to have eluded my sight, but after I kill one, the remaining two prove stronger than the rest - when they fall, they each leave behind a powerful Miracle spell, Soothing Sunlight and Bountiful Sunlight (neither of which I can use).

At last, this room is empty, and it turns out to contain another, larger cell…with Big Hat Logan sitting by the door. I'm surprised to see him here.

"Hello?" I ask. "What are you doing here?"

"Hello again! What a chance meeting this is!" he says. "Alas, I'm imprisoned once again. I don't suppose you could stage me a getaway? The Archives, such a storehouse of knowledge…So close, but just out of reach! The thought offends me so, I simply could die! As a student of the arts, you understand me, yes?"

"Well enough," I reply, remembering only now how Griggs said the Archives were Logan's goal in coming to Lordran in the first place. I try the door, but find it locked, and none of the keys in my possession open it. Stymied, I make a mental note to come back for him, then start climbing out of the tower. "I'll be back," I call over my shoulder as I leave.

Climbing the ladder I noticed up top before does not prove fruitful - I'm stopped near the top by a snake man descending. I slide down to fight it on the floor, and a second follows; two against one, in tight quarters, plus a simple mistake on my part in dodging to the side instead of back, gets me killed. Back at the bonfire, I restore my body, kill the three crystallized soldiers in my cell, and go out again, this time with no intention of heading down. When the snake men run past me, I try attacking the second to split them up, but they both seem so intent on climbing that ladder that even the one I manage to hit ignores me. This gets me a couple of free hits on it, especially as it starts climbing the ladder, but then I'm back in the position I was in before. One of them manages to get a hit on me with its sword while I'm still on the ladder, and after I slide down with them following me, I have to take a drink of Estus to be safe. It's rough, but I manage to kill the one I injured before, and once that one's down, the other falls quickly. With only two drinks of Estus left to use, I climb to the top of the ladder.

Up here, I find a set of metal doors, blue and red from I-don't-know-what-substances. They're locked, but the key I found down by the noisemaker opens them. This leads to a short room before a passage to an outdoor balcony; in the distance, past some trees, I see enormous spires of crystal - I'm guessing they must mark my goal. Also out here, I find a crystallized soldier, and in the natural light, it actually looks gray; it gives me a humanity when I kill it. An archer down at the other end of the balcony is shooting at me, and another soldier with a sword is waiting in the room from which the archer shoots, but I kill them both without difficulty. Past them is some stairs, and I hear the sound of a spellcaster, but I don't go inside just yet - only now do I have a chance to really look out at the view, and so I do, seeing the real sunlight that is somehow shining out here even though Anor Londo is dark. It's gorgeous up here…I'm high, _high_ above the clouds, and am only just registering the thin, frigid air in my lungs. It should be thinner than it is, though - the trees nearby probably help.

Alright, time to go inside. Hearing magic again as I near the stairs that lead indoors, I swap out my bloodshield for the Crest Shield, which proves prudent. There's a caster to my left, and a caster somewhere on the other side of the room - I'm back in the library, and it's enormous, it has more floors than I first estimated, and stairways, and expanses, and passages that connect two whole rooms when I thought there was only one. I manage to hit the spellcaster to my left a couple of times before it teleports away; I see it fade into existence on the other side of a passageway through the wall between library sections, and follow it. An archer shoots at me here as well, and a crystallized soldier to my right nearly surprises me, and gives me a crystallized straight sword when it falls. The caster is strong, and even with my Crest Shield, its spells hurt me a bit. Eventually, I cut it down. Then I begin exploring.

There are stairs that led down just before the passageway, but there's also a staircase that leads up to the next floor on the other side of the room. At the top, I find only a couple of crystallized soldiers, but halfway up the stairs and to my right is a mechanism, like the one down in the underground caves in the painted world of Ariamis. The top balcony explored, I turn the wheel, and the staircase rotates 180 degrees, so that it now leads up to the balcony on the other side. This brings me to an archer I've been hearing, whom I quickly cut down, and when I notice a passageway leading back into the other room even though I'm up a level, I first turn away to make sure I'm not missing anything; an arrow from another archer catches me in the back, costing me the last of my Estus. I run back and cut it down, still finding nothing of value around here, though I know there must be something. On the other side, I'm greeted by yet another archer, and across the way is the second caster I noticed before - I can get to it, but the stairs now lead up from where I was when I came in, so I cast Fall Control while taking shelter behind a pillar, then drop down and climb up to it. After one hit, it transports itself to the other side, so I'll have to rotate the stairs again, but before that, I explore this balcony, and at last find something worth the trouble: A chest containing a Strong Magic Shield spell.

Now I've explored all of the top floor, and most of the second - and, this still being my first try, that's impressive, according to her. The caster I'm currently engaged with transports back to its original spot after I manage to hit it again, but when I turn the stairs around once more and get to it, I get two strikes on it, and it falls. Down on the second floor, the door I came through to get in here looks like a path blocked by white light, but I know it isn't, and I turn the stairs again so I can explore this side of the second floor. There's a doorway on this side, too, which leads to a room with an archer across a gap; without Estus, I'm not going to try it. Nothing else here, I turn the stairs around again, intending to go to the other room and finish exploring the second floor, thinking both stairs are connected to the same mechanism; they are, but in reverse, so I have to go back, turn the mechanism yet again, then take the long way back so I can look at the spot I missed, casting Fall Control to save me even a bit of injury. Here, I find a treasure chest - this one I check, as I'm getting wary of this place - which contains a single chunk of twinkling titanite. Useful.

Only now do I go back to the stairs leading downwards that I saw earlier. One crystallized soldier is waiting for me on the landing, and the staircase proves only to lead down to the next floor, which is _not_ the bottom floor; when one crystallized soldier attacks from inside a stone passageway, and a second joins it, and a third comes after the first two have fallen, I'm mostly prepared, and only take one hit. There's an archer down here, too, but it goes down quickly; there are no more tricky stairs here, just a staircase that leads to a landing with a path to both sides and the floor, but I take the passage to the other room first. Here, at last, I find the place where the lift that took me to Seath the Scaleless was; there's a lever to call it back down, but I don't pull it. Some crystallized soldiers are waiting at the other end of the balcony, but first I take a wide passage leading outside to my left, and find one crystallized soldier, followed by another hiding around a corner, the second of which manages to get one more hit on me. Out here is a corpse carrying another chunk of twinkling titanite, and I need to be more careful - one more hit, and I'm dead. Actually…though it's impractical, and I don't have many to spare, I decide to use another Humanity sprite before I go back in, just to be safe. One of the two soldiers back inside gets a hit on me - not enough to have killed me had I not used the sprite, but it was good to be safe.

When I find a treasure chest behind the crystallized soldiers I just cut down, though I check it, I'm genuinely startled when it sprouts arms and a tongue and stands up. Recovering quickly, I fight the mimic carefully, and take it down without a scratch; it gives me a crystallized knight shield, which turns out to be useless when I check it against what I've got. With only souls to show for it, I go back and check the last balcony I haven't been on; there's nothing here, but two crystallized soldiers follow me from below, and I cut them down, sustaining just enough injury to have made using that sprite worth it. At last, I go down to the ground floor; her memories guide my feet, and I find an unlit bonfire on a small balcony out the other end from the entrance. I use the humanities I've gathered and kindle it once, twice, just to be safe. Also, I use the souls I've gathered to strengthen myself, working towards being able to wield the Darkmoon Bow. It's possible to teleport from here, but I think I'll explore a bit more first.

There is nothing on this floor, nothing at all - just books, globes, tables, chairs, and more books. I do find a rolling staircase, for getting at books higher up, but nothing else. I'm not interested in fighting the crystallized soldiers around here, so I ignore all but one of the archers until I find a treasure chest at the end of the balcony I didn't fully explore before taking the lift, at which point I have to kill the two behind me in order to claim my reward: another chunk of twinkling titanite. One of them also drops a perfectly normal metal shield - odd, considering all the crystal. Now there's nothing left in the library to explore, save for that one room I didn't go in…I think I'll take the lift up again, and see what I might be able to find of Seath the Scaleless. The lever is on the other side, so I have to cross again, but that's no matter - I cross, killing an archer along the way, pull the lever to call the lift down, then ascend again.

That crystallized warrior I experienced up here the first time is gone; I run up the stairs, in case another crystal lizard was there and fled me, but find nothing. When I get to the top, I'm actually surprised to see the wall of white light still there - for some reason, I was expecting Seath to have gone somewhere else. I don't feel like doing the same thing over again, so I head back down. Once the lift has brought me back, I hurry to the bonfire on the little balcony - needing to smash a table and a couple of chairs to get to it - and use it to take myself to Andre's forge to use the twinkling titanite I've gathered. It's my armor I choose to reinforce, both pieces that require twinkling titanite, and I even have one chunk left over.

So…I've stormed the Duke's Archives, and found Seath the Scaleless. Big Hat Logan is still in there, and I have no idea where to find the key - the only place I haven't been is that one room with the archer who's out of reach. So, I guess that's where I ought to go next. As it turns out, the bonfire on the balcony is one I can warp to at any time, so I can go right back to where I was. Once I've returned, my sole aim is to find that room - I think I remember where it is, and I won't bother killing anything on the way.

As it turns out, I do have to kill a couple of things on the way - one of them gives me a humanity - and the path I'm forced to take is very convoluted, but eventually, I make it. When at last I'm there, I find a ladder to my right, and I ignore the archer and descend far, far down. Here, I find a lever, which I pull, revealing a secret passage that takes me right back to the room connected to the balcony bonfire. The archer up above gets a couple of head shots on me, but it's nothing too serious. There are also a couple of rooms off of this one I'm in; one, full only of books, contains a treasure chest holding a blue chunk of titanite, and the other leads to a room full of books where I find a treasure chest holding a key - most likely, the key to Big Hat Logan's cell. I explore around this room a bit more, and find another treasure chest; I haven't been checking these, and this one turns out to be a mimic, which quickly eats me alive.

I'm back at the fire above Andre's forge when I rise - I forgot to rest at the one in the Duke's Archives. No matter; the secret passage is still open, and I can just go right there. I do need to be more careful about treasure chests, I know I do; I use a sprite to revive myself (though I wonder if I can absorb anything from Andre?) and go back. Having fooled me once, the mimic falls quickly, and it drops an enchanted falchion and its own head - I can wear its head, same as I can wear the head of a Fang Boar…it still has a tongue. I'm not sure what use this will do, but I'm sure it serves some sort of purpose.

Finally, I continue exploring - I'll go back to Logan soon. A lever reveals a not-so-secret staircase - it was obvious that there was one there, the platforms that sink into steps were white and clearly separate from the rest of the floor. There's a treasure chest near the entrance that I missed before, which contains a full set of the clothes of the spellcasters I've been seeing; and a treasure chest hidden behind some bookcases turns out to hold a Crystal Ember. I am…not sure what this does, but it looks impressive, the way it sparkles. Can Andre use it, or will I have to take it to someone else?

Down the not-so-secret stairs is one crystallized soldier - who gives me a humanity - and a treasure chest containing twenty prism stones, like the ones that near-Hollow woman was selling. I'm not sure exactly what use these are, either - they work as path markers, yes, and I've heard they can be dropped off a ledge to determine whether or not a fall would be fatal, but do I really need them? I'll hold onto them, since I don't have a primordial serpent garbage disposal anymore. Apart from that, the room down here is full of rusty metal bits of junk scattered all over the place, and a small doorway leading out is blocked by white light. I'll leave the light for later, and go back for Logan now.

That ladder provides the most direct path back to the cell tower, and though two arrows hit me on the way up - and one of the spellcasters, who apparently do revive in this place, hits me a few times - I get through and back. The snake men still run past me as I descend, and I ignore them; crystallized soldiers follow me from two of the cells I pass, but I cut them down quickly. It's those blue things that I'm worried about. Luring them out one at a time proves doable, though, and although two of them catch me - and it's now that I see how they hurt me: a long, thin black spike appears from somewhere under their tentacles and impales me before they throw me back down on the floor - and a third catches me when I take on the last two inside at once, they all eventually fall before me. I try the key I found on the door, and it works.

"Oh, thank you very much. I'm saved," Logan says. "That makes twice. I must be sure to repay you. I will visit the Archives. If I discover any new spells, I shall share them with you. Prepare to be impressed, by the onward march of sorcery!"

"I'll keep an eye out for you," I tell him, and I leave him be, sure enough that he'll go on his way when he sees fit, as he did in Sen's Fortress.

Also in this cell is a corpse that bears the soul of a Fire Keeper. Well, well…my Estus Flask will be more powerful than is useful, at this rate.

And now, I go up again, remembering that the bonfire in my former cell is - _still_ is - blocked off from the rest, as the one in the painted world of Ariamis is. Being able to use a Miracle that would bring me straight back to a bonfire would be helpful, but I make do, even with the snake men in my way. When I make it back to the bonfire, I decide to go see Griggs first - as I sucked a humanity out of him, and will probably take more in the future, the least I can do is let him know where his beloved mentor is, and that he's well. Firelink Shrine is as peaceful as always, and I go straight to the sorcerer's apprentice.

"How are you?" I ask him, a bit cautiously.

"Oh, there you are!" he says cheerfully. "Just so you know…Master Logan has left on his own again. It seems that he is still determined to find the famed Regal Archives in Anor Londo. I intend to search for him. Only, before I leave, there is one thing I wish to do. You see, Master Logan has left most of his books. With them I could teach you Logan's sorcery…You have done much to assist me. Before I leave on this journey, I will teach you all that Logan has to share."

"I just came from there," I tell him.

"Oh, hello, you made it!" he says. "Then, let us begin. As promised, I shall bequeath Master Logan's sorcery to you."

"There's no need," I inform him, trying to smile it off. "I found Big Hat - he was imprisoned in the Duke's Archives, but I freed him, and now he's got books to last him a lifetime or two."

"Ohh! Master Logan is at the Archives?" he exclaims, a grin splitting his face. "Thank the heavens…finally, his wish has been granted. I suppose he has his head buried in those tomes? That is always what made made Master Logan happiest…ah, I can just imagine it now…"

He seems so happy, and I'm glad I took the time to tell him. "No need for you to go running off now," I say. "You can study Big Hat's books to your heart's content. Farewell."

"Good bye then," he says, nodding. "Do stay safe."

"And you," I tell him, and I go.

Before I return to the Archives, I talk to Anastacia and have her use the Fire Keeper soul I found - any more, and it will be pointless, but this is a good potency. To my surprise, however, she speaks to me.

"That you have agreed to link the Fire," she says softly. "I thank you, sincerely…Finally the curse of the Undead will be lifted, and I can die human…" She sighs. "I am powerless, but I will do what I can…Please, save us all…Please…"

"I will," I tell her, handing over the Fire Keeper soul and my Estus Flask. "I will save us all. But I will do what's right, not follow the lies you've been fed." No need to tell her more than that. I bid her farewell, and she nods a wordless goodbye; then, I return to the Archives.

At the back of the room through the secret passageway that doesn't lead any further, I find Logan, sitting among many books. "Having fun?" I ask him.

"Hello there," he says. "I was expecting you." His voice fills with delight and wonder as he tells me, "This place is truly magnificent, more than expected even. As promised, I shall share the new sorceries with you." He pauses a moment, then adds, "And the secret of Seath's immortality."

First, I buy all the spells I can from him, including those I already have; what's left is the Soul Spear, and crystal versions of three spells he's offered up to now: Crystal Soul Spear, Crystal Magic Weapon, and Crystal Homing Soulmass. It seems this journey was indeed worth his time.

"Now," I say when I'm done, "please, tell me the secret of Seath's immortality."

"Ah, the secret of Seath's immortality?" he repeats. "If you have fought him, and were imprisoned, you must know that Seath is a true Undead, different from ourselves. His wounds close promptly, and no mortal blow affects him, granting true insulation from death. It is an effect of the Primordial Crystal, a sacred treasure pillaged by Seath when he turned upon the ancient dragons. So, only by destroying the Primordial Crystal can you so much as scratch his hide. And it so happens, the Primordial Crystal is in the inner garden of these very archives, the Crystal Forest."

That must be where that wall of white light leads. "Thank you," I tell him sincerely. "Will you be set here for a while?"

"The tomes stored in these Archives are truly magnificent," he tells me. "A great pool of knowledge, the fruits of superior wisdom and an unquenchable desire for the truth. Some would say Seath had an unsound fixation…But his work is a beautiful, invaluable resource. All progress demands sacrifice. And I certainly bear no antipathy for that wonderful scaleless beast."

In that case, I'm glad I didn't tell him I intend to slay that 'wonderful scaleless beast'. "Farewell, then," is all I say. "Enjoy yourself."

"Come again," he encourages me. "The knowledge here is limitless! I will absorb it, then share it with you."

I nod and go. When I get to that one crystallized soldier before the wall of white light, I practice backstabbing - I think I'm getting the hang of it, though it's fiddly, more fiddly than parrying. Then I traverse the white light, and find myself outside, on a wooden platform that looks out on a sort of grove; a ladder to my left takes me to the ground. Crystal golems are everywhere here, hiding around corners in the stone walls surrounding the place; they aren't too difficult to kill, but I don't think they can be backstabbed, though I try. A corpse out here carries a blue chunk of titanite. Then, a cluster of three crystal golems working together kills me. No matter; I rise at Firelink Shrine, and use my last Humanity sprite - after this, I'll need to use people for humanity, but that is also no problem.

On the way, I perform a perfect backstabbing on that one crystallized soldier - another trick down to use whenever I need it. This time, when I get to the trio of crystal golems, I'm able to lure them to me one at a time, and they go down in short order; practicing on the third one, I think I confirm that it is impossible to backstab them, though they do have backs. I do my best to explore this entire grove thoroughly - surely, one end turns into the Crystal Garden, but this wooded area must contain things besides crystal golems, too. For my efforts, I find a corpse with completely crystallized armor; it grants high defense, though is inferior to my current armor in most other ways, and is also oddly lighter. Oh well, not for me. Further in, I can't avoid getting ganged up on by crystal golems, but I take them down this time; one of them drops another chunk of blue titanite. Down the slope that gets steeper and steeper, I do indeed find trees that have been crystallized, standing on ground that has also been crystallized; I search everywhere else, but after finding and killing all the crystal golems and searching where they were, I find no more treasures. So, I descend into the crystal, and before I know it, I'm in a cave made up of enormous crystal spires.

A spike of crystal is my bridge, and all around are crystals far bigger than could remotely be considered natural crossing every which way. Another crystal golem is waiting a little ways down a couple of crystallized slopes, but I take it down easily. As I descend down spire after spire of crystal, I eventually come to a place where I hear an oddly beautiful twinkling sound; I pay attention, and soon see droplets of…water?…dropping onto thin air under some crystals and making the noise. I look hard, and wonder…I start walking, and the next thing I know, I'm crossing an invisible floor. On the other side is a corpse bearing a Humanity sprite, and the walk back to the 'main' path is less unnerving, but knowing that there are floors here that I can't see makes me nervous.

No sooner am I back on visible ground than I look down into this crystal pit and see some Moonlight Butterflies. This is _not_ a good place to fight Moonlight Butterflies, it's too slippery and dangerous here. Slightly deterred, I decide to go back and regroup. On the way, I use the souls I've gathered to buy Homing Crystal Soulmass from Logan, ignoring what he says - the normal spell was all but useless, but perhaps this enhanced version will prove more effective. Once I'm at the bonfire, it's the Abyss that I take myself back to - seeing Kaathe is comforting, and I'm getting tired. I sit down at the bonfire and kindle it with the two humanities I've accumulated, then decide it's time for a break - I've found Seath, kind of, and discovered his secret; though I've actually accomplished little, I lie down in the pitch blackness and rest. I've done enough.


	41. Chapter 40

Darkness and fire, my guardian and my love…the Abyss is probably the closest thing to heaven I'll ever experience. As I sit up on the nothingness, I realize I'm not wearing that little ring that allowed me to walk here - was it never needed, or has the danger gone with the Four Kings? The latter, she tells me. I stare into the kindled flames, Kaathe's visage just visible beyond.

"I'm sorry it has to be like this," I tell her softly. "I wish you had never left the Asylum…You wouldn't have extinguished the Flame anyway, even if you'd known you had a choice, I know that. It should have been me, just me - then I could get you out of the Asylum after I become the Dark Lord and we could reign together…You could have been the Dark Light, the world would be perfect if we could rule it side by side. But you're gone…and it's their fault. I have to set things right, love. It's the only way to end this. Surely, even you can appreciate that?"

But she cringes at the thought of the Dark Lord, the very idea of such a person - she fears the Dark as much as Lord Gwyn did, always has. It's just the way she always was - no matter that she's not even sure what she fears (perhaps a world of nothing but suffering?), the Darkness intimidates her.

"You know I won't let the Age of Dark be an age of suffering," I mutter, almost amused. When she doesn't respond right away, I frown. "Don't you?"

Only now do I finally see into the deepest recesses of her heart, and discover that she was always afraid of me, as much as she loved me. It's far from beyond the realm of her imagination to think I'd snuff out the sun and watch everyone and everything on earth freeze and laugh at all the death and destruction. If I'm put into a position of absolute power, she fears what the world will become.

"Oh, come on," I grumble. "Do you really believe I'd do that? I thought you knew me. Just because I have no qualms about putting myself before others doesn't mean I _enjoy_ watching other people suffer." Even as the words come out of my mouth, I realize what the problem is, and I sigh. "I know it never made much sense to you, to put yourself before anyone else," I say; "and that's okay, you were a saint and that's wonderful. But the ability to think of myself doesn't make me evil, it just makes me able to do the 'smart' thing instead of the 'right' thing if I need to. I wouldn't hurt anyone unless it directly benefited me, and I wouldn't really _enjoy_ it, unless they did something to me first."

She's not so sure. I'm not offended; I know our outlooks on life were always more or less mutually exclusive, we lived with it and worked around it. This is my quest now, and she needs to accept that - and she will. Eventually.

For now, as I think about what I need to do, I realize I'm pretty close to finding _two_ of the three remaining great souls I need to put an end to all this - I've made it to the crystal cave where the Primordial Crystal is, and I remember how I easily got to the wall of golden light down beyond the dark caves. Perhaps…I should go to the dark caves first. Yes, I think I'll do that.

From one dark place to another; here, I use Cast Light, and get the bonus casting from the bonfire trick. That bald Undead is still there, but luckily for him I don't need more humanity right now. I try to find some shortcuts around the various monsters down here, but when I get to the giant skeleton and the skeleton monster standing side-by-side, this backfires, and I'm killed. No matter; my humanity juicebox is right up the ladder.

"What the devil?" he cries as I grab onto him and suck out his life. Still, when he stands, he doesn't seem bothered. I go back and use the humanity I took from him to restore myself, swapping which hands the Dark Hand and my catalyst are next to so I won't have to mess around with anything in the future. Now that I think about his words, I smirk. What the devil, indeed…

This time, I manage to find a way around most of the skeletons, and I kill the giant one with the sword so as to make the path navigable. I don't get hurt on the way down, and soon, I'm out of the pitch-blackness and next to the entrance that used to be blocked off by golden light. As I reach it, however, a disturbance ripples through the air, and runes inform me that dark spirit Paladin Leeroy has invaded. Alarmed, I look around, back where I came, down the tunnel…just in time, I notice the red phantom coming at me from down the other way, the ledge that leads to nothing. He wields a hammer with an enormous, rounded head, but this is also his weakness, as he needs time to use it. A little ways into the fight, I realize he must have some sort of recovery spell on him, as he takes more hits than he should be able to. Once or twice, he manages to bring his hammer down on me, but most of the time, I'm able to block it with my shield, then swing at him - and usually block it again when he uses a second strike. I do need to drink from my Estus Flask a couple of times during the fight, and when I do this, he casts some sort of healing Miracle or other; once or twice, he also casts a shockwave Miracle that hurts me slightly. In the end, though, I take him down; one humanity accumulates inside me, and two Humanity sprites are dropped where the phantom falls, as well as his hammer and shield.

Before going on, I take a look at my prizes. The hammer, Grant, and the shield, Sanctus…these are the tools of a great cleric knight. What sort of cleric knight becomes a dark spirit? In any case, the shield itself provides a gradual healing, but I'm not capable of using it…yet. All of that done, I continue on, at last entering the cave that was denied me before.

The cave is narrow, and the walls turn smooth and white. After a little ways, it opens up, and I'm walking along a ledge in a cave of slippery white stone. Part of the slipperiness is due to the floor being slightly wet; to my right, where a bottomless hole opens up, I can see enormous stalactites hanging down like giant icicles. Soon after I realize this, one of those towers of bones stuck together with black goop rises from the ground in front of me; I kill it relatively quickly, and it drops a white chunk of titanite. The sound of plonking water here is chilling, far from the pretty twinkling sound of the crystal cave…but I don't really mind.

A little ways past this, another bone tower rises in front of me, and I think I hear something behind me as well. As I try to cut it down, an enormous arrow hits me in the face from behind the globby pillar - an impressive shot, to be honest. There's a slight depression in the stone wall to my left, just enough to cover me from the arrows while I fight off the two bone towers that are attacking me; once they're both down, I see another in the distance, before whatever skeleton archer awaits me is standing, and she tells me it's safest to kill it from a distance before approaching - it'll sink into the ground if I get too close, then pop up again behind me while I'm trying to deal with skeletons. I thank her, and follow her advice. Two Heavy Great Soul Arrows kill the distant bone tower, and the fact that I can't use my shield at the same time does not cost me at all. When I get to the skeleton archer, however, another giant skeleton from behind a bulge in the stone wall to my left stomps me, and I fall off the edge and die. Perhaps it would be smart to kill the archer from a distance as well, if I can.

Sure, I _could_ use one of the Humanity sprites that dark spirit gave me, but I'm having too much fun sucking the life out of that Undead. "Please, no," he moans this time as I drink from him, but he still doesn't try to defend himself. Maybe I should be concerned about how enjoyable this is…but I don't care. The first skeleton beast very nearly kills me this time, and when I slide off a slope, I'm certain I'm dead; luckily, a flatter portion of the cliff catches me, and after some sort of maneuvering that happens too quickly for me to see, it's the skeleton that falls to its death. When I make it back to the white cave, I notice a crystal lizard that's waiting; I try to kill it, but am too slow. Nothing else of note happens on the way back to my death spot, and though not being able to use a shield while fighting the skeleton archer gets me hit with a few arrows, both skeletons fall this time.

Beyond this, I find I'm back in a passage just like the one I came in through. It seems to be leading into the cliff, though, so I don't think I'll end up on a ledge again. When the passage opens up, I find myself walking up behind a field of ancient bodies all seemingly bowing in the same direction, away from me. Brittle skeletons are all that are left of them, and they crumble at my touch. As I walk over them, a flash of light to my left gets my attention, and I look and see a blast of energy hitting a stalactite between me and…is that that six-armed creature that had the Rite of Kindling? Barely do I process this question before a skeleton next to me crumbles even though I didn't move; I look, and see a miniature skeleton, about the size of my head, running towards me on tiny legs. A couple more are behind it, and when I go in to try to kill them, some blasts of fire from further away hit me. This…is a strange place - I must be getting close.

Bowing old skeletons are everywhere in this cave as I charge forward; I jump a short ways down to a ledge and start following it, and here I discover that these creatures are indeed the same as the one that had the Rite of Kindling, only smaller (and, presumably, incapable of making copies of themselves). The first one I actually reach falls pretty easily and drops a chunk of white titanite, but when I try to hide from another one behind a stalagmite while I take a drink from my Estus Flask, I accidentally put myself right into its line of fire, and I die.

Alright, now that I know all the tricks of the place, this should be easy. That Undead says nothing when I drink from him this time, doesn't even make a sound; I wonder if there's a limit on how much he has for me to take? I'm unable to get the crystal lizard yet again; I _am_ running out of Estus by the time I make it back, and I use two fighting all of the lantern monsters, but they're in a different arrangement this time, and I'm able to overcome them. At one point, I knock one off a low ledge and into some shallow water, and when I jump after it, the tiny skeleton creatures I noticed before start appearing under my feet. Interesting. Once all the actually threatening creatures are down, I start climbing up the ledges, then notice a small cave that goes deep into the wall; I sacrifice my progress to jump into it and follow it, and at the end is a corpse carrying an entire slab of white titanite. Getting back requires jumping down again, and I find a fifth lantern monster, which I kill without difficulty; now I'm back in the water, and more baby skeletons are appearing, so I leave. I can see them splashing in the water in the distance…

Up the slopes at last, I find a section with an absolute _crowd_ of dead skeletons, all bowing towards a mess of sticks; behind a nearby stalagmite, I find a corpse bearing an enormous soulmass. The sticks are joined by ragged pieces of reddish cloth, and when I knock down a thicket, I find a wall of white light, which I traverse. The red cloth continues on this side like a red carpet, and a few of the sticks from the structure are also here, but there's nothing else but an enormous hole that looks like it goes down far. I know I have to jump down; I do.

I'm in a huge cavern carpeted by water - anything I can see is either white or black. From an enormous sarcophagus in the distance, a beast made of skeletons climbs out into the open: Gravelord Nito, First of the Dead. I've found him. Unfortunately, I'm hurt from the fall, and when I try to take a swig from my Estus Flask - what little remains - a spike shoots up from the ground and knocks me into the air. Hoping to find shelter somewhere, I try running to a stone pillar a ways into the room, but another spike appears under me, and I'm killed with no defense.

Learning is key to these things…as is Estus. I decide to quickly go back to Firelink Shrine to refill my Flask fully, then try again. Before I go, I suck another humanity out of that Undead; again, he makes no protest. Once I'm back in the cave, I get the extra Cast Light use from the bonfire trick, then head down into the depths once more. Something or other jumps to its death along the way, and I again fail to catch the crystal lizard - I will do that before I leave, whether I achieve it before or after I kill Gravelord Nito. I try to run past the lantern monsters this time, to no ill effect, though that could easily have been luck; I also cast Fall Control before jumping down this time. At the end of all this, I have fourteen swallows of Estus with which to face the Gravelord.

Gravelord Nito summons skeletons during this fight - black ones, or perhaps it's just very dark down here, I can't tell. They revive after being killed, as my drake sword is not a divine weapon, but it's not uncommon for Nito himself to use an enormous explosion of black magic that kills all the skeletons temporarily. His sword, also, kills his minions in one strike. About halfway through the battle, my sword starts to break; I have no time to look for a batch of repair powder (if I even have any), so I keep swinging it. It gradually does less and less damage, but between Estus and luck, I survive (often, I notice, if something knocks me to the ground - whatever sort of attack it may be, it's always from Nito - I have time to drink Estus when I stand up). I suffer from blood loss once, though I quickly recover, and at another point, I somehow notice poison of some sort entering my system, but it's too late to wish I'd used my bloodshield. With my sword at its absolute limit, at last, Gravelord Nito falls, giving me the Lord Soul he found so long ago. Its strength has faded with time, most of its power used for death, but it is still a Lord Soul. In addition, I also get another Humanity sprite.

Sigh…I have to kill that crystal lizard before I take this to Kaathe - I swore to myself that I would. A bonfire has appeared down here, right in front of the huge sarcophagus where Nito was resting, so I don't need to worry about how I'll get out of here. I take myself back to the bonfire I've been starting out from during this endeavor - if I manage to find that other one further in, I'll use it, but I need that crystal lizard. The fact that I easily fight my way through the few monsters I need to kill in order to get down to it is probably a coincidence and has nothing to do with the Lord Soul I carry. When I get out of the darkness, I swap out my Cloranthy Ring for my Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring _and_ cast Hidden Body; I'm rewarded with enough stealth to walk right up behind the lizard without it noticing me, but for some reason, though I get ample opportunity, my sword can't seem to strike it. Once it's disappeared, I know what I need to do: I need to use another weapon, one I swing downwards; the Divine Morning Star should suffice. Instead of going all the way back up, I stop at the bonfire halfway down here - I hope it's enough to make the lizard come back out, but if not, I can always transport myself to the higher bonfire via this one. It is not, so I go back and transport myself higher to try again, my Divine Morning Star in my hand now, my drake sword on standby for getting through to here.

Yes, it was a coincidence that I was better at making my way through the monsters before - this time, the first skeleton monster belly-flops me and kills me. There's a humanity in my death spot - though I can't remember from where - so I don't suck life out of my Undead juicebox this time, just grab my death spot and run back; I have to teleport myself first, but that's not a problem. This time, I manage to hit the crystal lizard a couple of times, but my second consecutive swing never connects, giving it enough time to escape me; I have to try again. Again, I think of how a spell for bringing me back to a bonfire would be useful, but the only thing for that is a Miracle, and I don't even have it. On the next try, just barely, I get the lizard, and obtain two chunks of twinkling titanite and two shards of green titanite for my trouble. Now, it's time to return to Kaathe.

"What is it?" he asks when I approach him. "I am your guardian. Go on, state your wish."

"I wish to be taken back to the Lordvessel," I tell him; "I have a soul for it."

"Very well," he says. "Be still. Entrust thy flesh to me."

I hold still, and Kaathe swallows me. Again, the experience could easily be worse. Once we're at the altar, I remove my helm and put away my weapons out of respect, then climb the stairs and offer Nito's soul to the Lordvessel. The sparkling flame doubles in size, and I can now definitely hear a roaring noise. Yes…more than halfway there.

By mistake, I put on the Fang Boar head I got rather than my Gargoyle Helm when I have Kaathe take me back to the Abyss - a habit of hers. After Kaathe takes me back and I change, it's time for me to finally explore the crystal cave - flush with my first victory, I seek a second. Before that, though, I take a quick visit to Andre to use the twinkling titanite I got, and also to show him the ember I found. In my enthusiasm, however, I slip, and accidentally hit him with my sword.

"You've got some nerve!" he roars. "Coming at me like that…" He stands, and starts punching me.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" I cry. "It was an accident!"

He doesn't hear me. I let him kill me without putting up a fight - he's far too valuable an asset to lose, being the most easily-accessible smith of all, and I have plenty of Humanity sprites to restore what little one death will cost me. When I warp back to the Undead Parish, however, I don't hear the sound of him smithing…he won't forgive me. It was an accident! Is there no way…to…?

Oswald. He can fix this, cleanse me and the world of my mistake. But I'll need a lot of souls; I have to risk going down to Andre's forge to grab what I lost. I use Hidden Body and the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring to get as close as I can; I take a few punches, then run, and though he chases me a short way, he soon gives up. Right…to Oswald, getting overkill bonus on all the Hollows along the way.

"Greetings, and a pleasure to see thee again," he says when I reach him. "Art thou in need of my assistance? Do not be bashful."

"I made a mistake," I tell him. "Please, grant me Andre's forgiveness."

By some miracle, I have enough souls to do this, with less than a thousand to spare; I give them all up, and hold up my hands in prayer. A glow surrounds me, and my mistake is washed away…I hope.

"Thank you," I tell Oswald. "You've saved me a lot of trouble."

"If thou should committeth a crime, bring thyself back here," he tells me; "there is no misdoing that I cannot undo." He chuckles softly, not his usual creepy laugh, and I nod and go.

When I get back to the church, I'm filled with dread, but to my relief, I hear Andre forging away when I enter. To be safe, I put away my weapons; before I speak to him, I get down on one knee, hoping my gesture expresses my apology. Then I stand, and walk over to him, holding out the crystal ember I found.

"Hmm, that's an odd ember you have there," he comments. "Ah, I know what you're thinking, but I'm no good with those. It won't be easy, but…I'm afraid you'll have to look for someone else."

Sheepishly, I tuck the ember away, then have him use the twinkling titanite I got to reinforce my body armor again. "Thank you," I say by way of farewell.

"Don't get yourself killed," he says in return. "Neither of us want to see you go Hollow."

It's as if that incident had never happened. I'll have to keep Oswald's power in mind in the future.

Alright, back to the Duke's Archives; I was going to use those souls to buy Soul Spear, but now I have less than a pittance, so I'll just go forward. The one crystallized soldier I have to kill along the way gives me a humanity, and I only have to fight my way through a few of the crystal golems, none of which are a threat on their own, though one pair manages to get a few good hits on me. Then, I'm back in the crystal cave.

It's okay…I just have to keep in mind that there are floors here that I can't see, and that there are Moonlight Butterflies here, too. I walk up to the crystal spire which the first one is perched on, though, and it doesn't attack me; I dare to hope that maybe they won't hurt me if I don't hurt them, and start exploring elsewhere. Again, droplets of crystalline water making pretty sounds against an invisible floor mark my path, though I'm very careful to walk only where they fall on something. The next thing I know, I'm on another long, sideways spire of crystal…with a golden crystal golem waiting at the other end. Okay…I run towards it. By some miracle, when it backs me up against a wall, I'm able to get around it without slipping off - this ground is slick, and slanted to the side, but I manage. Its attempts to make a crystal explosion fail once it's higher than me, though - the difference in planes is really significant here. Eventually, it falls before me.

Now I'm on a crystal that appears to have nothing at either end, and no means of traversing from it. This _is_ an illusion, I know, and after a little bit of looking, I find the next invisible path. It's longer than the one before, and I can't tell if it goes at an angle or not; the walk is nerve-wracking, but I make it to another crystal, this one with more sides (and therefore less standing room) and another golden crystal golem. What's the deal with these? The only other one I found was Dusk's prison…One blow from this one knocks me over the edge and kills me, before I can even think.

Trying again - it's all I can do. When I rise, I'm back at Andre's forge, but the sound of his smithing is soothing to hear. I use a sprite, not the Dark Hand, and return to the Archives. That crystallized soldier gives me _another_ humanity…it would be nice if I could save it to restore myself when I next need to! Getting back to where I was isn't too difficult, though, and one of the crystal golems on the way even gives me a blue chunk of titanite. What's more, the golden crystal golem I killed last time is permanently gone. For some reason, the other one is, too…I think I saw it jump to its death after me last time. There's a corpse on this crystal spire, and it carries another blue chunk of titanite.

And now I'm stuck. Where's the next path? Not here, she tells me - I have to go back at least one spire to find the true path out of here…which is just wonderful. Still, I'm glad she knows, and is telling me. Just before I get back to the first spire, however, I misstep, and fall. That's fine, the golden crystal golems are gone, I just have to recover my death spot and find the right path. I have one spare Humanity sprite left after I revive myself this time…I hope I don't need to resort to other measures anytime soon. To spare myself the temptation, I make sure to save my place at the bonfire in the Duke's Archives this time.

Yet _another_ humanity comes from that crystallized soldier this time! If I die again, I'll have to come down here and kill it before I try some other method of restoring myself. Nothing of note happens on the way to my death spot; afterwards, I try walking to the end of the first crystal spire, and lo and behold, this mound of crystal I saw is in fact a place I can stand on. I then slip off the edge while looking to see if the crystalline droplets next to it are marking a path, but I land on an invisible floor. Behind me is a small, round cave through the crystal mound I was just on, and there are _three_ crystal lizards inside; I run in and swing my sword, and I get two, which give me two chunks of twinkling titanite each.

Now, from this small crystal cave, there are two paths I can take: one forward, and one backward. I think I see a corpse somewhere back, but I'll have to be careful - she warns me that that path intersects with another, so if I'm not careful, I could easily fall off an edge that's just next to where a droplet of crystalline water marks a floor. Undeterred, I promise to be careful, but sure enough, a surprise corner in the invisible floor catches me unawares, and I fall.

Time to see if that crystallized soldier will give me a humanity I can make use of. It does not, and I use my last Humanity sprite. At least it doesn't give me one the second time, either. The golems outside put up a but more of a fight on the way this time, but two of them give me blue chunks of titanite - whatever purpose that may end up serving me. Also, I manage to catch the third lizard this time, and it gives me two more chunks of twinkling titanite and one of blue titanite. Seriously, I wonder what these colored titanites are for…

More carefully this time. When I'm close, however, I get overconfident, and I run right off the edge.

Never get cocky. How have I not learned that by now? It's not like I'm an idiot like she was…The crystallized soldier doesn't give me a humanity this time, so I have to go back to the dark caves and suck another out of that bald Undead. Shame about needing to go back and forth…it seems I _have_ tired of traveling through the fire, even with her there. It's not so much that I've tired of her presence, more that I'm so close to the end of this journey and am getting impatient to reach it.

Nothing of note happens on the way down again. Whatever's on that corpse, it had better be worth it. This time, I get a bit closer, but once again, I slip and fall - it's so impossible to tell…!

And that's when she tells me her secret: prism stones. I can buy a ton from that near-Hollow woman, and I already have twenty - there's no reason I should have to rely on the water droplets at all! Annoyed, I first go to suck more humanity out of that Undead. When my first swing misses, I fear that I've sucked him dry; but no, I try again and get more from him. Next I have to go to Firelink Shrine to get to that near-Hollow lady, overkilling what few enemies I find along the way. The stones are cheap, and I use every single soul I got getting to her to buy 48 of them; along with the twenty I have, that should be enough for at least this one thing. An upside of making this trip is that the Firelink Shrine bonfire refills my Estus Flask to a full twenty swallows, instead of the fifteen I've been having to go with.

There's no point in wasting the pebbles on the path I'm already comfortable with, so I don't. Once I'm where I need to get, she shows me her technique: Step, throw pebble, wait, step. This does save me from falling to my death at one point, and there's an added convenience in that I'll be able to follow these all the way back, too; but, somehow, even though I do exactly what she says, I manage to throw one pebble in just such a perfect way that it lands on ground over a corner that I slip off of. I fall to my death, costing me over 30,000 souls and three humanities.

Back at Firelink Shrine. Since I'm here, I might as well go buy more prism stones - the method is sound, I'm just very unlucky; I also wait to restore my body until after I've killed the undead rat on the way, just in case, but no luck. Another 48 stones even…and then I have to find someone to suck life out of. Is there no one at Firelink Shrine I would like to take from? I can drink from Griggs or maybe even Siegmeyer, but…is there anyone else here? There's that place she once told me to go when I was trying to find information on Petrus…

…and there, squatting down, is that Undead from the dark caves.

"What are you doing here?" I ask, surprised.

"Oh, we meet again. How many of you are there?" he jokes pleasantly. "You've come at the perfect time. I'm done with the looting. I'm a humble merchant now! And wondrous treasure, have I! At a special price for you." He offers to show his wares. "There you are, have a nice look at them."

I hesitate.

"Oh relax, no more funny business out of me, my friend!" the man insists.

Warily, I take a look…and lo and behold, among other things, including prism stones, he's selling Humanity sprites. It's a high cost, but not his priciest item; I can gather the souls for it around here…somehow…

When the silence gets uncomfortable, he says, "Here, have you met that backwood Shiva? Believe me on this one, bruv…The man is trouble. I can see it in his eyes. I just can. Hmph, no doubt about it. Watch him."

"Is that so?" I ask, not too mockingly. "I suppose you'd know. Do you know anything about anyone else?"

"Here, have you met that sunbathing Solaire?" he asks in reply. "Believe me on this one, bruv…He's a complete idiot! But he happens to be an awfully strong idiot. Just nod your head and keep him on your side." He giggles.

"At least _he_ has some sort of redeeming quality," I comment. "What I was wondering was if you knew anything about Petrus of Thorolund."

"Oi, have you met Petrus, that self-proclaimed cleric?" he asks, not surprised. "Believe me this one, bruv…The man is scum. Don't you be fooled by his claims to do good. They're all the same, those rotten clerics."

This is an interesting statement; I know Petrus was scum, but coming from someone who says _all_ clerics are rotten, even regardless of his other qualities…it seems odd that he'd be right about the particular man of the matter.

He's not done, either. "Oi, have you met Lautrec the Embraced? Believe me on this one, bruv…He's completely mad. He wouldn't think twice about cutting somebody down. So watch out for him, especially if you've humanity to spare."

 _Humanity to spare._ Fire Keepers have humanity - _infinite_ humanity, it's said…is that why he killed Anastacia? And if so, why didn't he use the soul he took from her? Also, 'the Embraced'? What does that mean? "Well, I can't afford anything of yours at the moment," I tell this man at last, "but I will be back for that Humanity sprite - I need it."

"What, nothing appeals to you?" he asks sarcastically. "Well, you must have bad taste."

I don't grace this comment with a response, just roll my eyes and walk away. Okay…I need ten thousand souls. My death spot has about 6,500…and I'm not going to go all the way there Hollowed like this. With no other options, I guess Griggs will have to be my next victim. Oh well, no help for it right now. "Heavens!" he grunts when I grab him, but as always, there's nothing more than that.

It's doubly important that I reach my death spot this time. One of the golems gives me another chunk of blue titanite on the way, and I really am starting to wonder what the point is - surely, there must be one. I'm more careful with even the prism stones this time - instead of stepping to where a stone I threw is before throwing the next, I step halfway to it, then throw the next, keeping them all much closer together, too close for the same mistake to happen again - and more than once, my added caution does save my life. It takes me 81 prism stones to get to my destination. When I get there, I find that the corpse is carrying an entire slab of blue titanite.

Great. _What is this for?!_

When I turn around, the sight that awaits me is surprising to say the least: all those prism stones I dropped, all 81 of them, glimmering in different colors in a line through the air. It's like a string of celebratory lights. On top of that, I can even follow them back…it's a rainbow bridge. Safely, I make it back to the cave, then to the invisible floor on the other side. The only way back from here is to jump down onto one of the crystal spires where golden crystal golems were waiting before, and this one is the one furthest away from the exit. That's okay, I can make it - even if I get uncertain, I still have eleven prism stones left. Only one of them is all I need to get back to the exit, though, and then I'm out. Joyously, I jump off the edge of the crystallized ground and onto safe, solid, grassy dirt.

Firelink Shrine is peaceful and safe. When I run through Frampt's former spot to talk to the Undead, he greets me with, "Oh, you again. Fancy that. You've come at the perfect time. Some new gems have come my way. I saved them specially, just for you, mate." There's nothing new in his supplies that I can see, but I buy a Humanity sprite all the same (he has more than one), as well as enough prism stones to bring my count up to a full 99, the most I can carry at once.

"Thanks," I say halfheartedly in farewell.

"Right, good stuff, eh?" he says in return. "Don't you forget who got it for you!" He laughs. I roll my eyes and leave.

Before I go back to the Duke's Archives to find Seath, I return to Andre - I have a lot of twinkling titanite, and maybe he can help me with the blue stuff. He can't, but it turns out that the bloodshield can be reinforced like a regular shield, so I use the two shards of titanite I have to reinforce it twice over - maybe, if I can ascend it into something, I can make it a better shield. While I'm here, I also reinforce my body armor to its limit, and my Gargoyle Helm to +4; I should be ready to fight Seath now. With nothing left to deal with, I go back to the Archives.

Naturally, the crystallized soldier I have to kill to get to the crystal cave gives me another humanity this time. I'm tempted to just go back and use it to kindle the bonfire here to full strength, but I've wasted too much time already. Somehow, the second crystal golem I fight kills me - I'm too cocky, too rushed. Still, I can just go back, grab my death spot, and use that humanity to restore myself without wasting what I bought from that Undead - I don't bother fighting the golem near my death spot, just grab what I lost and go back to recover.

Nothing of note happens along the way this time, apart from another chunk of blue titanite coming into my possession, though the pair of golems by the entrance to the crystal pit do put up a good fight. The one golem that's actually in the cave jumps to its death, as if to make up for this; then, I'm back to the invisible path I've yet to traverse that will take me to the Primordial Crystal. As I carefully cross the empty space, I think. Seath is a dragon, one of the true dragons from ancient times…albino he may be, but can his tail still be cut off and made into a sword? I'm inclined to think so…Yes, she tells me, yes it can; I thank her for sparing me the trouble. It takes me exactly twice as many prism stones to reach the other side as it took her, but unlike her, I'm intelligent. Now I'm here.

No more bothersomely open spaces - now, I'm on a solid floor, surrounded by solid walls, all of crystal. There's an opening after a short path, but it's enclosed. In it, there are clams, like the ones I saw down in the underground lake; I approach cautiously, and one of them - not the nearest one, oddly enough - comes towards me. This one goes down much more easily than the ones at that lake did, but it still puts up a pretty good fight; when I need to drink some Estus, I accidentally grab and drop a prism stone, but I didn't have enough to be of any practical use anyway. Like the ones in the underground lake, this clam has skulls piled inside of its shell, which swings open upon death; lovely. Just for fun, after this one clam is dead, I run back to see my rainbow trail - it's a pretty sight, now that I'm on safe ground, and I can see the gap where there was that one spot I would have fallen off of without them.

Back to the space. Luring a second clam out without alerting the other two that I can see isn't difficult, but this one fights even harder. As well as stabbing me with its little stubby legs and throwing its body around with the shell closed, it also opens its shell and tries to bite me a couple of times. One or two small mistakes on my part are all it takes, and though I never find out what happens if it catches me in its clamps, I die.

Inching forward, getting a bit further each time than the last - that seems to be how this entire quest has gone. Of course, that crystallized soldier doesn't give me any humanity when I kill it, so I'll have to use the sprite I bought from that Undead. On the other hand, I need to buy a bunch more prism stones anyway, so it's not like I wasn't going to Firelink Shrine…I decide to suck some more life out of Griggs instead, because I can. "In the name of sanity!" he manages when I grab him, but nothing more. I ignore the Undead now-merchant's shifty words and buy 40 prism stones from him with the souls I got from the crystallized soldier; then, I go to the bonfire, restore my Hollowed body, and…and…

I'm tired. How much have I achieved today? I found my way to and killed Gravelord Nito, and I'm at the end of the part of my quest that lies in and beyond the Duke's Archives. Surely, I've done enough for now. This place is so peaceful, so comforting…I lie down on the grass and mossy stone, and sleep.


	42. Chapter 41

At last, I rise; it's time to destroy Seath the Scaleless. As I transport myself to the Duke's Archives, I try to stay conscious of why I love moving between bonfires so much: her. She's right by my side as I move across the world. I miss her so much…

Outside, I basically let the golems kill me, I'm in such a rush. So much for Griggs's sacrifice; I need to use the sprite I bought. I'm so close, it's important that I not start hurrying, now more than ever. On the next try, the crystal golem in the cave very nearly jumps to its death, and I have no idea how it manages to catch itself, but it does; apart from that, nothing of note happens. My death spot is gone, of course, but at least I can focus on the clams. Beyond them, I can see something shining brightly, and I'd be willing to bet it's the Primordial Crystal. Having learned my lesson, though, I don't go straight for it - I'm careful, and I look around to be safe. Around a corner to my left is another clam; when I check where it was waiting to see if it was guarding anything, I find nothing. From this angle, I can see another clam around a corner that was ahead and to my right that I didn't know was there before, and this is even the next one that comes for me. They don't come based on which is closest - it's like they all know I'm here and have already decided which of them will take their turn when. The last two attack together, but I'm able to position one in front of the other and keep the fight mostly one-on-one.

Then, at last, it's time to investigate the distant star - the Primordial Crystal, it must be. I take one last drink of Estus and walk through the dead clams, out of this open space through a sort of archway of crystals into another room carpeted with white fog; I have fourteen swallows of Estus with which to face whatever's ahead.

Halfway across the room, I can see it up against the far wall: a crystal, separate from the rest, shining brilliantly. It's oddly shaped, in an almost hourglass sort of form - a narrow pole is the center, but large chunks at the top and bottom give it substance. It looks like it could easily be snapped in half…

Moments after I finish processing this, Seath the Scaleless descends from above on his six pink-tinged wings; he must have sensed my presence near the crystal somehow. Now, at last, I get a good look at him. He has the upper body of a dragon, but from the waist down, he's just a blobby mass of crystals and white flesh that end in three tentacles - a result of a failed experiment, perhaps? Two tentacles stick out either side of him, and a third, bigger one comes out his rear; it's the back one that's his real tail, that I can sever to make into a weapon. On a hunch, or guided by her memories, I hide behind the Primordial Crystal and wait for him to slither close to me. When he stops to ready an attack, I run around his side tentacles to behind him. His attack hits and breaks the Primordial Crystal - I know, I hear the backlash, and he gives a tremendous roar. While he's momentarily stunned, I try to get a good slash on his tail, but it writhes back and forth, like the other ones do, more of a tentacle than a tail.

Seath's defense against injury gone, the true battle begins. His sluglike lower body makes him slow, though his roars as he summons his crystal magic are intimidating. I run to the other side of the room from where he's at, wait for him to get close to me, run around a vestigial tail (usually his left one, the one to my right), and attack his main tail while he does something to everything in front of him - I don't see exactly what he does, but from the sound of it, he's summoning fields of crystal shards. All three of his tails are strong, though, and when he realizes I'm behind him, he starts using them as flails, pounding the ground and, often times, me. There's nothing I can do to block this, and it hurts, but it doesn't take too long to run out of his reach, and since he takes a while to slither over to me, I have plenty of time to take a swig from my Estus Flask. This goes on for a short while; then, at last, a scream ripped from his jaws, the end of his main tail gets sliced off, leaving me with a beautiful greatsword: the Moonlight Greatsword. There's no time to admire it, but unlike other dragon tails I've cut, the severed remains of his tail stay on the battlefield, getting knocked around by whichever of us runs past it; kicking it in front of me is oddly fun.

Now that I have my one goal, all I have to do is slay the beast. All of his tentacles, and his main lower body, are fair game now, and I start following the same pattern as before, only attacking the tail I get around rather than going further to reach his back tail. This is slightly more risky, and I do get to see what he does when he roars: a beam of white light comes from his jaws, and he sweeps it across the ground, crystal shards sprouting up in its wake. Usually, I don't even touch the crystal shards, not even when he gives off a tremendous explosion that makes almost the entire floor erupt into them, but the one or two times I do get stuck in them, I feel something building up inside me: Not poison or toxin, but curse power. These crystals can curse me! Oh well, it's too late to wish I was using the bloodshield.

It's slow going, chipping away at him when I get a chance but mostly either running or waiting. Whenever I get hurt, I have plenty of time to run out of his range and drink from my Estus Flask; as long as I keep to the pattern, I'm not really in any danger, though his tails come dangerously close to smashing me at one point. And then, at last, with one final, tremendous roar, Seath the Scaleless, the last of the ancient dragons, falls and disintegrates, leaving me with a Humanity sprite and the Lord Soul Shard that Lord Gwyn gave to him long ago.

I've done it. The feat even the ancient dragons failed to do, I have single-handedly achieved: killing Seath the Scaleless. On my first try, too! That's impressive, she tells me - she had no end of trouble with this fight when it was her time. Savoring my victory, I take out the Moonlight Greatsword and examine it. It is a huge, beautiful blade - not like the primal style of the other dragon weapons, this is smooth and white, its handle elegant. I'm not quite capable of wielding it effectively right now, but I'm pretty close - something else to work towards, though the souls I got for defeating the albino dragon feel petty compared to the fight I won them from. What's interesting about this sword is that it does literally no damage as a physical weapon, less even than a fist - all of its power is magical. Regardless, it's a very nice trophy.

My enemy felled, I have this room to look around in. The severed remains of the white tail are still here, and I kick it around a little bit more just for fun. Apart from a couple odd chunks of crystal growing on it, it's oddly slimy and limp, and light as a feather; in the ragged wound where it used to be attached, I see severed bone and muscle, but there's no blood. Do dragons bleed? They must…

There's a bonfire in this room now, and I light it as I kick the tail around. Before I return to Kaathe, I transport myself back to the Duke's Archives tower - now, I buy Soul Spear at last from Big Hat Logan, as well as Crystal Magic Weapon while I'm here.

"Well, where have you been?" he asks when I greet him. "Time is a resource! Let's delve in promptly!"

"Thank you," I say after I buy the spells; he only has the one left to teach me now. "Are you…enjoying yourself here?" I don't have the heart to tell him Seath is gone.

He mumbles something incoherent. At first, I don't mind, but when his noises go on for nearly a minute, and the tone of voice as he 'talks' goes up and down as if he's in the middle of a conversation, I start to worry.

"I'll…be going now," I say.

"Come again any time, please," he says. "For I too learn whilst teaching a student."

Only slightly perturbed, I leave him be, and go up to see what's become of the room where I faced Seath before - maybe there's something to be found now. A crystallized soldier follows me onto the lift, and I kill it just as we reach the top. Once I'm inside - the wall of white light gone - I can take a look at this crystallized room, and now I see that it too is walled with bookshelves. More importantly, in the center of the room, there's a treasure chest. I check it before I open it, just to be safe; it's real, and contains a large blue ember - a light blue, not the blue-green of the one in the forest. Still, I wonder if it'll be useful to Rickert?

Now I have to return to the Abyss and Kaathe. An arrow hits me when I sit down at the bonfire, so I have to stand up again; I didn't know that was possible. Once I've transported myself to the void, I have my primordial serpent take me down to the altar, where I offer up the Lord Soul Shard held by Seath the Scaleless; only the Witch of Izalith remains. A huge, roaring, frothing fire burns in the golden bowl, and never in Undeath has she felt so close. The Witch of Izalith will be a tremendous task, she warns me - just getting to her will be a greater trial than the Bells of Awakening. I'm not worried; first, though, I take the blue ember I found to Rickert.

"Hey, hang on," he says when I get to him. "That's a sorcery ember…isn't it? Yes, it certainly is…The first I've seen since my banishment from Vinheim. What do you say, friend? Mind giving that to me? This is no-man's land. I'm the only one who could handle it anyway."

"Of course," I reply, handing it over, deciding not to ask about him having been 'banished' from Vinheim.

"Yes, as you should," he says, almost smugly, as he takes it. "I won't disappoint you. I'm taskless no longer!"

"Er…" Out of pity, I have him reinforce the Darkmoon Bow twice over, using the strange titanite I've been getting from headless demons. I can't use his magic embers, though, except on my broadsword…My broadsword. The old friend I'd all but forgotten about. I wonder, if I strengthen it a bit further, can it be used with one of the special souls I have to make a new kind of sword? As for what to have Rickert do…the bloodshield, I need to upgrade the bloodshield - if I ascend it to a magic bloodshield, will its effectiveness against magic increase? That would be very helpful, if it would… "Farewell," I say absently as these thoughts work their way through my mind.

"Good-bye, then," he says as I go. "Keep your head on out there. You really help break the monotony."

Instead of taking the Firelink Shrine bonfire straight to Anor Londo, I decide to go there on foot, all the way to and through Sen's Fortress, killing literally everything between here and there (except Solaire and Reah, of course) - I need more souls, if I'm going to do any of the things I have in mind to do before I seek out the Witch of Izalith, and all the enemies in Anor Londo are gone. Shame I can't just feed my junk to Kaathe…I miss my primordial serpent garbage disposal. Oh well, Frampt was a liar and a fool, it's not _too_ great a loss. While I'm in the area, I also buy another batch of repair powder from the near-Hollow man and put it on standby, just in case I end up in a position like I did with Gravelord Nito again. It's almost embarrassing, how very little damage the Hollows on the way manage to do to me, even if they manage to hit me full-force; one of them gives me a firebomb along the way, and one even gives me a shard of titanite, sparing me a bit of work. Inside Sen's Fortress, however, when I try to fight the snake man on the bridge, I slip and fall, and since I was injured beforehand, I die.

It's okay, I have a spare Humanity sprite, and I rested at the bonfire above Andre's forge. I charge back in, this time casting Fall Control before I'm even on the bridge, just in case. When I get to the three cobra men shooting at me from below, I drop to kill them, deciding against using even the lift - I'm going to explore this place thoroughly, one last time, and kill everything. The boulder mechanism has been turned by something to roll them down the second path I have to cross to get to the top; when I'm climbing up it, I notice a broken column near the top of the stairs to my left, and as a boulder comes at me, in a panic, I jump down. To my surprise, I find myself in a place I haven't seen before, where a cobra man waits; I kill it, and here also find a corpse carrying a medium-sized soulmass. There's a way forward and a way backward; the way backward takes me up two staircases, past a wall that looks like it should be illusory but isn't, and ultimately leads to the locked cage door I found the last time I explored this place. Inside the cell it kept, I find a corpse wearing a black sorcerer set of clothes and carrying a spell I haven't heard of before: Hush, which has the same effect as the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring. Back to where I dropped, forward leads to a small room with a bench and a window with iron bars that have been pulled apart; jumping down takes me to the same place going down that square hole takes me. Of course, I have to drop down further from here, and this takes me back to the start. Good, I'm glad I took that random chance. Towards the end of the bottom half of the fortress, however, I get knocked off a bridge and fall to my death.

Now I'm Hollow, with no means of restoring myself…unless Oswald has humanity to spare? I'm pretty sure I sucked Griggs dry, and I don't want to take from Andre. No…Reah. I'm sure Reah has plenty. Can I grab her? I'll have to see. Her Miracles aren't of much use to me, and she wants to thank me - this is my price. But no…the Dark Hand can't reach her the way she's kneeling down. Okay, I'll try Siegmeyer again.

I take the lift down and approach him, charge up the Dark Hand, and grab. "Whoa!" he gasps as I start sucking out his life force - and yes, he has some to spare! It must have been my inexperience with the power that caused it to fail last time. And, as always, he says and does nothing when he picks himself back up. Once I'm back above Andre's forge, I use it; then, I decide to take the cage lift to the top of Sen's Fortress, then go back to my death spot - I've killed everything else that isn't between those two places anyway. That one black knight is still there; Prince Ricard is not. When I get to where I died, my death spot is in the most painful place - right in front of the ledge where the cobra man stands. If I could just jump to it…! But no, I'm not going to take such a stupid risk - she might have, but I won't. As I run back, however, I accidentally fall down the hole at the end of the hall; it doesn't kill me, but it's quite a distance, and it puts me right back at the start anyway.

All of that was pointless. Back on the first bridge, the snake man is still chasing me from when I evaded it before, and a swinging blade knocks it to the level below (but not to its death); I think I'll go up, get my death spot, and then come back down here and take the lift - that last set of swinging blades is tricky. While I stand on the bridge making this decision, the snake man that fell before somehow dies; I think it falls again while coming after me after climbing the ladder. On the way up this time, I turn the mechanism so the boulders fall harmlessly out of the building, since I'll have to pass it again. A blade on the second-to-last bridge hits me while I try to dodge through, though, and I fall to my death, costing me over 20,000 souls.

Ooh, that makes me mad. I need souls! Without Frampt to chew up my trash, my options are pretty limited. Although, I guess I could always…just start heading down towards where the Witch of Izalith is, and gather souls along the way, then come back via a bonfire when I have enough. Sigh…Yes, that's what I'll do. I take the lift back down to Firelink Shrine, suck a humanity out of Siegmeyer ("Wha-!" he grunts.), use it, then start taking the long way on foot down to Blighttown through the sewers - yes, there's a shortcut just beneath me, but I need souls!

None of the ragged Hollows on the way down give me humanities, and when I try to use the magic of my drake sword against the slimes, naturally, it quickly starts to break; apart from the two firebombs I've gathered, I have to jab things to death with my catalyst to get to the bonfire (I don't want to use my repair powder with a bonfire in sight); while I'm working, I take the time to repair all of my equipment, costing me a majority of the souls I gathered getting down here - 702 souls are all I ultimately have to show for not just warping to this bonfire, though I guess having all my equipment repaired isn't a bad thing. Above the shortcut down to the entrance to Blighttown, there's a portion of sewer with about ten undead rats; I go there first, hoping to get a Humanity sprite from one of them (she used to do this all the time), but no luck. Neither of the rats outside the entrance provide, either, and I descend with only the Dark Hand to keep me from doing anything as a Hollow.

In the network of rafters, there is a gleaming corpse I haven't pillaged on the top of a section of building that I have to jump to; I go down to the bonfire first, then climb back up for it. Unfortunately, it carries only an Iaito - an Eastern katana that I have no use for - and my price is falling to my death, leaving me with no means of restoring myself, at least until I get…somewhere, I don't know. This bonfire can't be warped to, so there's nothing to be done for it; I have to proceed Hollow. I manage to recover my death spot, at least, then make it back this time…Hollow. A couple of the lizard-men drop tiny to small soulmasses on my way, which is nice; I notice, now, that their skin is shiny and black from just below their knees down - from the poisonous mud?

When at last I get to the poison swamp, I put on the rusted iron ring and start looking around, hoping to maybe find a Humanity sprite on a corpse I may have missed. After I kill a trio of giant leeches, I find something much better: Siegmeyer.

"What are you doing here?" I exclaim when I see him, surprised.

He snores. Even though he's standing upright, he's fast asleep. Well, maybe he won't wake up while I suck a humanity out of him; I take out the Dark Hand and grab. Or at least, I try. Given the uneven ground, I miss, and punch him instead; he grunts and wakes up.

"Er, hi," I say sheepishly.

"Mm! Oh-hoh!" he exclaims, noticing me. "Excuse me. I was absorbed in thought, I just drifted away. You see, I'm actually in a bit of a fix. I've made it this far, but I'm short on antidote moss for the trip back." He hesitates, then sheepishly says, "Um…By my knighthood, I am ashamed to ask…But can you spare a few scraps of moss?"

I have plenty, more than enough for whatever might be ahead, so I can spare some. "Sure," I reply, and I give him three of the purple moss clumps I'm carrying.

"Fantastic!" he says happily, taking them. "Thank you, a saint you are. This knight of Catarina expresses his deepest gratitude. I shall not forget this. Please, take this; a symbol of my appreciation." He hands me a small shield with a spike in the center, which can be used for both attack and defense and is useless to me. "Well, our fates do seem entwined, don't they?" he goes on after I take it. "Perhaps this, too, is the will of Lord Gwyn!" He laughs.

"Doubtful," I comment, chuckling as well. I don't want to try taking from him again and risk punching him - one more attack would definitely be taken as hostility, and I don't want to have to fight him…do I? If I kill him, I'll probably get a Humanity sprite, and who knows what else he might be carrying? Yes, actually, I decide to take the risk, though I do attempt to realign myself first. This time, I succeed, and as he gives an alarmed cry, I suck another humanity out of him. Then, I go, to use it at the nearby bonfire, killing a few more leeches and another insectile creature along the way; I won't kill him right now…though, if it comes to it, I very well might in the future.

Now, all that's left is to get back to the land of fire. By the time I'm in the spider nest, I still don't exactly have a ton of souls to brag about…those egg-laden people have souls, and they aren't using them; I start attacking. The moment I hit one, it dies without giving me any souls at all, and the eggs explode into five huge white maggots with glowing crimson eyes and bloodred jaws. They spray red stuff at me, and jump at me with their pincers; they're so low to the ground, it's hard to hit them, and even when I do, they hardly give me any souls at all - less than anything else I've killed during this entire adventure. Every attack they land on me does little damage, but it quickly adds up; I have to use a swig of Estus in the middle of the fight! Since I'm already at it, I decide to kill the other one, too - it's not a lot of souls, but every soul counts. Hitting the disgusting creatures is nearly impossible, especially on this slope, but after a little while, I manage it.

Outside, in the fiery caves, the egg-laden people are everywhere, and I need souls so badly…I start attacking them, one at a time. The first egg-laden person I kill drops a weird chestnut, like that one I found in the painted world of Ariamis. The disgusting things are still nearly impossible to hit, and I keep getting splattered with a bloodlike substance. Eventually, one cluster manages to stunlock and kill me. Alright, this isn't worth it; I have to go back up and suck another humanity out of Siegmeyer - annoying, since I already rested at the bonfire down here. What's more, when I go back up, I can't find him anywhere, so I end up killing a lot of slugs (and getting two large shards of titanite, which isn't a bad thing) for basically nothing; perhaps he's already gone on his way, wherever he was going. I do, however, have enough souls to buy another Humanity sprite from that bald Undead…shame to have to waste them like that, but I guess it can't be helped right now. I buy a Homeward Bone afterwards from the near-Hollow woman, so I don't have to make the trek all the way down again - souls or no souls, it's too much trouble. Out of desperation, I also try to suck another humanity out of Griggs ("Cease! Have you gone mad?"), but he is indeed dry; the Dark Hand has served me well, but not well enough.

When I finally make it back to the bonfire down in the fiery world…I start thinking. These poor people all around me…no wonder they're praying, they're probably praying for death. It's too much trouble to put them out of their misery, though, especially since they just revive when a bonfire is activated. For souls, I'll just have to keep going. When I reach those two egg-laden people who are crawling around, though, I hesitate. They obviously have the strength to act; maybe, if I help them, I can get humanity from them later? I'm rather desperate right now, so I decide to try it. When one gets to me, it grabs me; at first, I don't struggle, but then, one of those maggots pops out of the top egg and reaches for me. That's when I realize the truth: These people aren't suffering, they probably chose this - and they want me to join them! I barely manage to push the abomination off me before the maggot latches onto my head and does Lords-know-what. Then I swing my sword; by pure luck, the blow that kills the second person also kills all the maggots from the first person, so I only have to kill the other five. This slope is steep, and by getting below them, I cut them down with less difficulty than before. As I run back up to the bonfire, I wonder: What are these people? Do those eggs control their minds, like parasites, or did they choose this-

My head itches. Ohh, it _itches_! I take off my helmet and scratch at it. Why am I so itchy? It just keeps getting worse as I scratch and scratch…Did a mosquito bite me up above, somehow? Or…?

And then, I feel something creep over my neck. I cry out and grab my head, trying to stop whatever it is, but I'm powerless. Before I know it, an egg cluster, just like the ones on these people's backs, erupts from my face and envelops me; it settles, and an egg is encasing my entire head, a few more coming off my neck.

Oh. Oh no. Oh no, no, no. That maggot _did_ do something to me. I can still see, somehow, through the webby shell, but I feel the egg sucking at me - it's not hurting me, but it's doing _something_ …Oh, get it off, get it off get it off get it off-

 _No, don't!_ an earnest voice says. _Not yet. Go here…_ She shows me a spot from just inside the bell tower. _…and hit the wall. Something there will help you._

 _Did you do this?_ I ask her. _I shouldn't have cared enough to try to help these people - was that your influence?_

She doesn't respond, and that's answer enough. This had better be worth it. Sure enough, the wall she pointed me to is illusory, and through it, past a passageway thickly lined with eggs, I see a bonfire, and one of those egg-laden people guarding it. With nothing at risk, I walk up to the abomination.

"Can you help me?" I ask the thing.

"Oh dear, what have we here?" it - he - asks. "Are you a new servant?"

 _Say yes!_ she encourages me before I can scoff at the notion.

"Yeah, sure," I grumble.

"Bah, no matter," he says. "Go on and have an audience with our Fair Lady. I pray that you will mind your manners!" With that, he crawls out of the way, and I enter the bonfire room. In here, moving weakly next to the fire, looking almost as if it were part of the wall, is a giant spider, like the one Quelaag was merged with, except it's mostly white with red blotches…and this one, too, has a woman's body growing out of it from her waist up. Her hair is platinum blond, her skin pale. I'll worry about that later.

"I was told you could help me," I tell the egg bearer.

"Why not try this?" he suggests, holding something out. "I've no use for it any longer."

I take it. It's a chestnut, like the ones I got from the egg bearers outside. That means I have four now; I eat one (somehow), and the eggs crumble and fall off. _Why?_ I demand of her. _Why did you do this?_

 _Check the fire,_ is all she says in response.

Figuring I might as well, I sit down. It's a pre-kindled fire, like the ones in Firelink Shrine and Anor Londo…which means that this spider lady is a Fire Keeper, and that this fire is one I can warp to. I'll never have to go through the Blighttown swamp again! This _is_ nice, but why did she make me go through so much just to get to it? Would the egg bearer have not let me through if I hadn't had eggs on?

 _No, he would have,_ she admits. _I was hoping he'd let you in without question if you already had eggs, though…I didn't want you to have to lie about being a new servant._

 _Thanks for being so considerate,_ I think at her sarcastically. _Next time, ask me if I'll mind, okay?_

 _There won't be a next time._

That's true enough, I guess. Curious now, I stand up and approach the spider lady. "Hello?" I ask.

She looks up at me with milky eyes - she's blind. Her lips move, but no sound comes out. Intrigued, I go back to the egg bearer.

"Oh, hello," he says pleasantly. "What is it that you need?"

Not only is he a freak, I discover that he sells weird chestnuts, as well as a couple of pyromancy spells, and that he can also strengthen my pyromancy flame. This, however, is not what I need right now.

"Incidentally," he says, "do you have an interest in pyromancy? If you have, I shall share my flame with you."

Like Laurentius did? I don't need a second flame…especially not if it's part of this creature's soul. "No," I tell him.

"Well, fine," he says. "I will not force you."

"Thanks," I say.

He sighs. "Worse than Undead, we are diseased, and unwanted," he says sadly, and I think he knows why I refused his flame. "Like the grime of the Great Swamp. But my dear, Fair Lady! She cried for me…and swallowed the great Blightpus, despite Mistress Quelaag's orders to the contrary…"

I turn back and look at the spider woman. Again, I notice that her legs are moving weakly, and her skin is so very pale…and her eyes, they were very, very blind. Is that why? Did she suck this…Blightpus…out of this one egg bearer, to spare him the pain that the other egg bearers endure? Or did…she suck it out of _all_ of them, to spare them pain, at such tremendous cost to herself? Either way…

"I used to know someone like her," I murmur to the unfortunate host.

Then I bid him farewell, put my helmet back on, and leave. Now I understand why she wanted me to see this. Like the Fair Lady, she would willingly have sacrificed herself for others, even if someone close to her had directly told her not to. It's not just Frampt and Gwyndolin's fault that she's dead now, she would have done it anyway. If she was hoping this would change my mind about what I intend to do, though, she was wrong.

Well, I have an easy way back here now, I guess that's worth something. But it's time to proceed. Past the first capra demon and a ways along the ledge, a disturbance in the air signals dark spirit Knight Kirk's invasion; he comes from behind me, and I kill him quickly. He does leave behind a humanity for me to absorb (as well as nearly 30,000 souls), but no sprites, unfortunately. Still, I can go buy them from that bald Undead now. He also drops his thorny sword, iconic of the Knight of Thorns; I have no use for it. I cut through the capra demons quickly, sloppily, and pay the price - the last one of the five kills me. That humanity I got, though…I can get it back, take it down to the bonfire just below, and use it - I'll have to go Hollow for a little while, but not too long. It's back at the spider lady's bonfire that I rise, and at first, I accidentally go the wrong way - there's a second hallway leading in the opposite direction that ends at a solid stone wall. How odd.

This time, I make it through, and even find a corpse bearing a medium sized soulmass on the way that I missed last time. That doesn't give me enough souls to strengthen myself, or to purchase Crystal Soul Spear, but it _is_ plenty enough to buy at least one Humanity sprite _and_ a Homeward Bone so I don't have to even go through the capra demons again (I know I should, but I really want to move forward). The bald Undead only has one Humanity sprite left, but he also turns out to have a Twin Humanities that I didn't notice before, which I can also afford, and do. On the way to the near-Hollow woman, one Hollow has its shield up when I swing my sword, but I still kill it in one blow, though I'm cost the overkill bonus - how far I've come! One Homeward Bone later, and I'm back in the firelands and ready to proceed.

Before anything else, I haven't forgotten that other path with the many giant millipedes; I'm stronger now, and have more spells, so I attune a couple of others meant for fighting before I go on - I can't use Soul Spear yet, but Homing Crystal Soulmass is within my capabilities, at least. The tauros demons go down with relative ease, and nine Great Soul Arrows are all it takes to kill the first millipede (though I don't realize this and cast a tenth by mistake as it dies). An ambush is probably coming next, so I cast Homing Crystal Soulmass before proceeding down the path, summoning five crystal orbs that surround me, waiting to find something to hit. Indeed, an ambush comes - two millipedes in front of me, two behind - and the crystals floating around me do absolutely nothing about them. Is it just my own misfortune, or is this spell really as useless as it's turned out for me? Heavy Soul Arrow is the next spell in my reserve, and it takes five to kill one millipede; I take out the ones behind me first, and the one to my right drops a green shard of titanite, while the other drops a red chunk of titanite. Three Heavy Great Soul Arrows and one regular Great Soul Arrow kills each of the other two; the one on my right drops nothing, while the one on my left drops both a green shard of titanite _and_ a red chunk of titanite. Great; what are these for? Past all the millipedes is a treasure chest, and inside it is a big ember that's extra flame-y somehow. I think that skeleton smith might have worked with fire embers…

That's all for here - I'm expecting another ambush on the way back, but none come. Now to see what's beyond where that wall of golden light was. To be safe, I kill the giant millipede that's waiting along the other path - my remaining eight Great Soul Arrows plus two normal Soul Arrows kills it. As it turns out, just past where the wall of golden light was, there is a wall of white light - a powerful monster, right off the bat. There _is_ a hole in the wall to my right, though, and I decide to take that first. A root determines whether I follow the left or right balcony along a wide, deep hallway; left takes me to a root that brings me to the floor, but to my right, I notice a glow that indicates a soulmass. I go left first, and down, first the root, then a set of stairs; here, I find a bunch of branches growing here and there that smash when a swing from my sword hits them, and four large beetles that jump away from me. They give me twice as many souls as those maggots, at least, so that's something. The hallway ends in a massive stone door, which is locked by some contraption or other.

With no other options, I go back up, and check the other side, taking a drink of Estus as I go to be safe. Or at least, I _try_ to check the other side - I slip and fall to the floor. This proves a survivable drop, though it might not have if I hadn't taken a drink of Estus, and it costs me another. I try again, and again I slip and fall…I think I have to jump. Also, I should probably start casting Fall Control, as I only have four swallows of Estus left; unfortunately, Fall Control is one of the spells I sacrificed to attune all my battle magics. My jump misses, and I fall; then, my jump makes it. For a reward, I find a big soulmass. Unfortunately, there's no way down from here except to jump, so I'll still have to use one more drink of Estus before I see what's through the wall of white light, leaving me with only two left. By pure chance, however, a random branch catches me on the way down, and I don't get nearly as hurt as I would have; I decide to wait on taking that drink.

All my alternate routes exhausted, I traverse the wall of white light. What I'm met with is a creature exactly like that demon I found when I returned to the Northern Undead Asylum, except that it's on fire, and its eyes and mouth glow a flaming orange. The fight itself calls for the same tactics - keep behind it, swing when it's distracted. It does the same moves, with no variation, and though there are root-branches growing all over the place, the difference in terrain doesn't change much about the fight, either. Using all of my Estus, I manage to take it down; it gives me a Humanity sprite, and also drops a catalyst, one based more on strength than intelligence, and also more attuned for fire.

She's shocked. I went into the battle with three drinks of Estus, not even using the Dragon Crest Shield or the Flame Stoneplate Ring, and I killed the monster on my first try; this thing gave her no end of trouble! If nothing else, she has to admit that if anyone is suited to extinguish the Fire of the world, it's me. This backhanded compliment only makes me smile. Yes, yes it is.

Beyond the fire demon's room is a dark stone passageway, stairs in front of me and to my left leading up, stairs directly in front of me leading down. Two fire-breathing statues roll towards me down the stairs to the left; one gets me, but doesn't kill me, and I take them both out. First, I go down the stairs, and this staircase leads me to a bonfire, which I light and sit down at, golden Estus refilling my dull green Flask, if only a little. I even have enough souls to strengthen myself - probably enough to buy Crystal Soul Spear or some stuff from the giant smith in Anor Londo, but I feel like using them on myself right now.

Whew…what a day it's been. Seath the Scaleless is down and out, and I've made my way past the start of this final frontier. Pleased with myself, I lie down beside the tiny fire and rest.


	43. Chapter 42

I'm so eager when I rise. This is Lost Izalith, it must be! Without even thinking, I start climbing the stairs. Apart from the two fire-breathing statues I saw when I came in, there are two more along the way, and a close-set trio guarding a large soulmass at the top. Each statue takes three swings, so I swing twice at the front two of the trio, back up, wait for all of them to finish breathing fire, and charge back in and kill them all without a scratch. Here, as well, I notice those weird branch-roots growing out of the floor; they don't seem natural, and I begin to wonder…

Flanking the final set of stairs are two short banister pillars, one of which is topped by a fire-breathing statue - it doesn't come after me when I pass it, but looking back, I can see it moving. Despite this, I can't hit it, no matter what I try; odd.

Up top, there's a four-way crossroads with stairs leading down in all directions; the ones to the left and right end in solid walls after about six steps, but the one past where I come leads down, presumably to wherever I'm to go next. The four corners of the crossroads are marked by more pillars, all topped with fire-breathing statues; these, too, move in place, but don't approach me. At the center of the crossroads is a round metal platform with a very intricate wavy design and a pressure plate in the middle. Naturally, I try this first. A wavy red star pattern glows red on the pressure plate, and I rise…up to the bottom of the bell tower, where I thought the center of the room looked like a lift. This means that I can stop by that kindled bonfire and get more Estus, and that I have a shortcut back down; I stop at the fire briefly, then descend once more and proceed - though it takes me a moment to orient myself.

Down the stairs, down, down…it ends a fair distance above the floor, broken. I still haven't re-attuned Fall Control, so I jump with no protection; the drop hurts, but not too badly. However, this turns out to be a path right back to where I fought the fire demon, nothing more. Confused, I start climbing the stairs again, when I realize that there's no other way for me to go up there; so, after I kill the two statues, I go down to the bonfire to see if there's a path this way. And, as it just so happens, there is: A flat, twisting root leads down from the bonfire to a lower floor. There's a corpse bearing a large soulmass on a ledge maybe a third of the way down, and I don't miss it; I am, however, stuck after I get it, and forced to jump from up here. I hit the ground hard, but I don't die, and the bonfire's just back up the root anyway; I really should re-attune Fall Control…though I probably won't need it now. Still, I go back up and fix the mistake, getting rid of the useless Homing Crystal Soulmass.

There's a wall of white light blocking the doorway out of the enormous hallway I've gotten to the floor of. Among some roots to the left, a summon sign glows; I inspect it, and discover that it will call upon Solaire. Is there a strong monster ahead? There must be…I call upon him, then traverse the white light, his golden phantom behind me.

Through the door is a field of lava, with just enough cool stone for me to stand on; I look around, and from the ceiling, an enormous creature drops into the magma, like a centipede or a scorpion of some kind. Solaire is behind me, but for some reason, he doesn't use his lightning spears, and the creature slowly crawls over to us and starts smashing us with one enormous claw. It's a struggle to stay alive, even with Estus, and I have no idea how to go about actually fighting; Solaire, too, seems stymied. Before long, I die.

When I rise, she's laughing at me. That fire demon before gave her no end of trouble, but when she fought _this_ creature (Solaire by her side), she took it down easily on her first try. Annoyed, I use the Twin Humanities sprite to revive myself and kindle this bonfire so I don't have to go back up; then, I go down, call on Solaire, and try again - I don't see the summon sign on the way down, and at first I'm worried, but when I draw close, it reappears. I wonder if I can suck humanity out of the phantom with the Dark Hand…It shouldn't come to that.

At first, we're given no chance at all - the thing, which I start to think might be several centipedes growing out of a muscular lower body, slams us repeatedly, and neither of us can move. Solaire, still, does nothing but take it; I try to dodge, and succeed once or twice, but can't hit the thing. After a while, the monster finally comes closer to us, if still not close enough to hit…it starts getting really difficult to keep visual track of what's going on; all I know is that, at one point, I'm grabbed up and chewed on, and Solaire somehow ends up running around on the field of lava, distracting the monster more than attacking it. With the creature's back turned, I swipe at its legs, and find that my sword hurts it quite badly; unfortunately, Solaire is constantly taking damage, from the lava when not from the monster, and at last, the thing swallows him up and chews him until the phantom is vanquished. For a moment after this, the thing stands still, and I try casting a couple of Great Soul Arrows - which turn out to hurt it a lot, actually - but then its attention is on me, and the fight gets close to impossible. I do my best, taking a drink of Estus every time the thing picks me up and chews on me, and I start making use of what little space I have to move around in so that it starts doing other things, but just as I start to think I might have a chance, a jump attack lands right on top of me and kills me.

Alright, learn and try again - that's always been the pattern, and it always will be. This time, I move around a lot more as it approaches, buying time; Solaire, however, still fails to do anything to defend himself…idiot. Once the creature gets close, the fight starts, and I try to swipe at its legs while it's occupied with Solaire earlier this time, but a stomping attack I didn't know it had shakes me off once, and the second time, it kills me.

With one Humanity sprite left, I need other options…like Solaire. Is he still up by the drake's old roost? If so, I can transport myself there, suck life out of him, and transport myself back here easily - no need to gather souls or anything! He must have humanity in him to spare, as strong as he is, no matter his idiocy… _and_ , he'll still help me in the fight, I'm sure. Having reached this conclusion, I use my last sprite without concern. Before I go charging in to attack again, however, I think to actually go and check to make sure he's there - she'd go charging in without checking, but I'm not a moron. Luckily, he is in fact still there; knowing this, it's time to try again. The lift is already up for me, no need to even pull a lever; now that I have Fall Control, getting back to the bonfire before the monster is easy. On the way, I kill those two fire-breathing statues, and use the souls they give me to repair some of my equipment (my armor has to go unfixed apart from my gauntlets).

It's close this time, _very_ close - when Solaire starts running around on the lava and attacking the monster, I shoot Heavy Soul Arrows and Heavy Great Soul Arrows from the sidelines. Eventually, the fight comes back over to where I am, so Solaire isn't even getting hurt by the lava anymore; by the time he falls, I could easily kill the thing myself. One well-placed jumping attack from the beast kills me, though.

Okay, time to use Solaire for other things as well. He grunts when I grab him, but like all the others, makes no other attempt to defend himself or even protest. The souls I get on the way back from the two statues are even enough to repair the rest of my things. Solaire's golden phantom still comes at my call…He's such a useful person. Early in the fight this time, the monster knocks me onto the lava, and though this doesn't kill me, one strike from it afterwards as I try to get somewhere I can safely drink from my Estus Flask does.

My love is in hysterics, her laughter echoing from the flames. _So much for being the one worthy of extinguishing the Fire!_ That just makes me angrier, and more determined to kill this thing; furious, I charge in, summoning Solaire on the way. The fight starts out like normal this time, but soon, the thing is on him, while standing within my reach; I swing my sword, and after a couple of strikes, something comes off of it, like a dragon's tail. I think the thing had a sort of tail of its own; the detached appendage is still alive, like a giant centipede, but one swipe from my sword kills it, leaving me with a ring that I don't have time to examine right now. Between my magic, Solaire's strength, and my sword, the thing soon falls, without me having to take even one drink of Estus. Solaire's phantom gives me a Sunlight Medal and vanishes, and the monster drops a Humanity sprite and a Homeward Bone. And that's it.

See, _that_ was how her first fight with this monster went. Why I had to fail so many times before having the same experience as her, I'll never know. Regardless, I take a closer look at the ring I got from the monster's tail. It's charred black, an intricate design like a tiara on the top, with an orange stone's color just poking out from the middle of the centerpiece. There's magic in it, that much is more than obvious; I take off my Cloranthy Ring and try it on. A sensation similar to what that ring of Artorias's gave me coats my feet…on a hunch, I run out onto the lava, and though it still sort of burns through my boots, the heat is almost completely tolerable - lava is now more or less free ground to traverse, if not indefinitely. There's a corpse on one side of this room carrying two shards of green titanite that I couldn't have gotten to without the ability to walk on the liquid fire. Before I proceed down a cave I find in the side of this lava cavern, I go back up to pillage those corpses I saw on the molten rock before; I also have enough souls to use on myself, but this time, I save them for the other things I intended to do. The statues' fire hurts just as much as it used to - the resistance is only to what's beneath my feet - so I don't bother with the trio near the top of the stairs; and of course, I also run past the egg-laden people.

First, I go to the corpse that's just across lava, and it turns out to carry a medium-sized soulmass. Then, a bit apprehensively, I take a drink of Estus and go out for that one lying in the middle of a hot magma pool. On it, I find a strange ember; its flame is dangerous, and unlike any other I've seen before…this, too, that skeleton smith will probably find useful. Now I have a flame ember, a strange flame ember, _and_ a crystal ember, and I don't know which of the few smiths I know can use them. Well, I have to go to the giant in Anor Londo anyway, to get materials and upgrades so I can see what else these golden souls of mine can do; he might as well be my first stop.

Dark Anor Londo is dark and empty - and always will be, now, without even Seath the Scaleless nearby to give the ancient city purpose. Once I'm the Dark Lord, maybe I _will_ claim the castle for myself - it's certainly ornate and furnished enough, I don't think I could design a better palace, and a smith lives right next door. All of my embers are on display as I approach the smithing behemoth, and right away, he fixates on the brilliantly shimmering crystal ember.

"Mng. What's that?" he grunts. "Shiny-shiny. Give me that. I make weapons shiny."

"Uh, sure," I reply, handing it over.

"I hath shiny-shiny," he says happily. "I make weapons shiny!"

Odd to hear archaic dialect mixed with baby talk, but I guess it's not his fault. I buy a third large shard of titanite to bring my old broadsword up to +10, and as it turns out, it _can_ be turned into something else, by combining it with the Soul of Sif. With no reason not to, I do it, and it becomes the Greatsword of Artorias; it's the least I can do for an old friend, even if I won't be using it. The giant and I exchange farewells, and I take a closer look. I'm actually not quite capable of wielding it right now, and though it has a lot of benefits, my drake sword is still basically stronger. Still, I'm glad to have this - a little bit of respect for the tool that got me so far.

What's more, I still have enough souls to buy Crystal Soul Spear from Logan - though I'm far from capable of casting it, and I still have other things I want to do with the bloodshield, just having this last spell will be a victory. To make things easier, I use the Homeward Bone I just got to bring myself back to the bonfire down in the firelands, then take that to the Duke's Archives. Upon my arrival, the old sorcerer greets me pleasantly, and I buy the last spell in his repertoire. I thank him, and though his farewell is pleasant as he offers to teach me everything he finds here, there's something concerning about his voice. Moments later, something strange happens.

"…Who are you…" he gasps, glancing up at me as if he only just noticed me. "Stay clear…stay clear of my work…Curses upon you! How dare you disturb me?!" This brief rant ends in something almost like a whine.

"I-Logan, it's _me_!" I exclaim. "Deimos of Astora? Your, er, pupil?"

But he only repeats the same exclamations again. Seath's research drove the albino dragon to madness…it occurs to me that perhaps that wasn't rooted only in Seath's own insecurity about being born without the scales all other members of his kind were blessed with. Maybe there's something in these books, this research, that would drive anyone mad. There's nothing I can do about it, though, so I leave.

Getting back to the bonfire outside the cavern of lava is as easy as ever; though I momentarily mistake the lava for another wall of golden light, I correct myself before I start to worry. Now, at last, forward. The cave I found earlier seems strange - it's almost perfectly round, and all of it is of cooled lava, including the ceiling; how could nature have created such a thing? Through it, I start to see huge root-branches growing down into lava without catching fire, making them all the more suspicious. Just before the next lava field, there's a bonfire, which I light and rest at just in case - the bonfire in the Duke's Archives gave me fifteen swallows of Estus, so I should be set.

Walking on _fire_ , on _molten_ _rock_ ; it takes me a minute to fully realize what I'm doing as I proceed down the ravine I'm in. Fire bows before me…I have the powers of a god. Sure, anyone who put on this ring could do it, but could just anyone have gotten this ring in the first place? No…I am a god-to-be, and at last, I truly feel like one. And yes, the heat is all but intolerable even when I'm on solid ground, but I can bear it. A flat root leads up and over some lava, then down, and I round a corner to see the remains of an ancient city.

Lost Izalith, the ancient city of fire. I'm really here.

Some solid stone leads to a bridge, and then I can't tell through the glare of the glowing liquid rock beneath me if I'm standing on wood or stone anymore. A root twists up and over the path I'm on like an archway, a main entrance to this fallen city. Standing on the lava all around me are what look like several of that back half of the rotten dragon in the painted world of Ariamis; I wonder if there's any relation?

These roots that don't burn are the only means of traversing this place besides running across lava, and walking on the molten rock is still necessary in places, as some of the root paths come close but don't actually touch. I find a large soulmass around behind one tower, and another on a patch of tiled ground that has survived the flames. Now, I'm on some real ground, and as I approach a large, square tower, I'm getting perilously close to some of those rotted dragon rears. One statue waiting outside the tower comes for me, but though the other moves in place, swinging my sword at the latter reveals it to be solid stone, nothing more. Going counterclockwise around the outside of the building, as I round the corner to the last of the four sides I check, a rumble and roar tells me that one of the dragon bottoms has noticed me and isn't happy about it. Fortunately, this side of the tower turns out to be open, and I take shelter inside; a living statue I didn't notice comes in after me, but it's badly injured - presumably by whatever that lizard bottom did - and I kill it quickly. Inside this tower is a treasure chest, and when I open it, I find a _gigantic_ soulmass, bigger than I would have thought possible; it seems like it would be a waste to use it now, when I'm not in an immediate position to use whatever souls I get, so I just tuck it away for the time being.

That thing is still outside, and probably still angry. Do I want to bother with killing it right now?…No, no I don't. I'll cast Hidden Body and run past it. This is met with limited success - I still get close enough for it to notice me (somehow - how can it notice me when it doesn't even have eyes?), but I manage to get through, and it soon gives up. Another root path brings me up to the top of an old, crumbled building; a corpse hanging off the edge of the remains of a bridge bears a Twin Humanities. Now…where I go from here is tricky, she warns me - she can't even remember the exact route right away. Merging my mind with hers, I clutch my pendant and let her guide me, looking where she asks me to; after a minute, she finds the remaining walls and roof of an old passageway that has partially sunk into the lava, down and beyond the end of the crumbled bridge; that's where I have to go, she tells me, and it means I have to get down from up here. Ready to take a chance, I cast Fall Control and jump down to the ground I see below me; I make it down without harm. Before proceeding, I run around this tower - which is just like the last one - but only find two living statues, and no ways inside. One of the statues even gets a blast of fire on me, so I have to drink from my Estus Flask before I run across the lava.

There's no floor under this stone roof, but some flat roots provide a bridge anyway, taking me up and around the mound of stone that's just ahead of me. Once I take it all the way up, I find myself inside the walls of a large, ancient building; it's slightly cooler in here, much to my relief. Another flat root leads down from where I am (which is either a second floor or the roof) to the floor below, but as I try to get a better look around, I slip and fall. The fall doesn't hurt me very much, but down here, there are living statues. Two of them come for me, and I cut them down; a third turns out to be a fake. As I proceed, I come to a dark overhang that seems to be the underside of an entire building; there are a ton of fire-breathing statues down here, and I have to back up for Estus at one point. When the ones chasing me are down, I decide to change out the charred ring for the Flame Stoneplate Ring - I don't think I'll be walking across any more lava, and fire will probably be a significant danger here, from more than just these statues.

Past this, and all the statues on the other side, there's a wide staircase that leads up and up; at the top is some sort of grotesque thing, like a lump randomly covered in eyes with six maggots for legs - two more maggot appendages like arms open up and shoot some sort of substance that I don't want to know about. Since it's in my way, I swing at it, and when I get underneath it, I'm safe to kill it. Once it's gone, I start to get wary - something more treacherous is here, I just know it, so I take out the bloodshield. At the top of the steps is another tower, like the one I found the gigantic soulmass in, but this one has two open sides: the one facing me, and the one to my right when I enter. This takes me further into the compound, and roots are everywhere now, stairs and roots up and down; I take some stairs that go up to my left, and suddenly, I'm met with…a pyromancer? The person is dressed in the garb of the Witch of Izalith, like the corpse I found above, and soon summons fire in their hands; I'm not prepared, and when a huge firestorm erupts from the ground, I'm killed, just as a disturbance in the air tells me that a dark spirit has invaded as well.

Now I'm back at the bonfire before the entrance to the ancient city. I use my single Humanity sprite, then have to put the charred ring back on, and this time, I run through, headed straight for the way inside - my death spot is in there, and I had a lot of souls, even without the enormous soulmass I still have on me. Despite my use of the charred ring, I'm pretty burned by the time I make it in, and I have to take a drink of Estus. That's okay…

As soon as I make it, I swap out the charred ring for the Flame Stoneplate Ring, and I start cutting through the statues, one of which turns out to have been hiding around a random corner to my left. They don't give a lot of souls compared to some of the other stuff I've been killing lately, but they do add up, and I don't have an insignificant amount by the time I make it to the stairs. Around the left side of the first set of stairs, between the staircase and a wall, I find a corpse that bears a big soulmass that I missed before.

When I get up top this time, I grab my death spot and then run right back; the pyromancer follows me, throwing an enormous glob of what explodes into lava where I was just moments ago. As I run up to the person and start fighting them, trying not to give them time to cast anything else, that ripple goes through the air again, and Knight Kirk invades once more. Four swings of my sword manage to bring down the pyromancer, so I have time to fight off the dark spirit, who goes down easily and leaves behind a humanity for me to absorb, but nothing else. Once that's done, I check where the pyromancer fell (they faded away, like an Undead with a soul), and I find an ancient catalyst longer than a spear, formerly used by the witches of Izalith. Was that pyromancer really one of them? In any case, this catalyst is more powerful than the one I'm using, and better adapted to intelligence, though it's less useful as a physical weapon; despite its rather unwieldy size, I swap it out.

Now, I can keep exploring this place; I take a drink from my Estus Flask, then climb up these stairs to the top landing. Here, I find that I could go left and down into a wall of white light, or forward and down to more of this building. That wall of white light leads to my final destination, she warns me, so I'd better head forward first. Down the steps, I find a mirrored section of building, and another squishy abomination is waiting here for me; as I've discovered, getting underneath it is safety, so I do so, and cut it down. Oddly enough, it drops two chunks of white titanite - if it was going to drop titanite, I would have expected red. Behind it, I find a treasure chest - which I check first, to find it safe - that contains a powerful pyromancy spell.

My only other option is to go back and down the root I saw earlier, so I do. Down here, there are a lot more fire-breathing statues; once they're all cleared out, I see some stairs to my right, but a glimmer from underneath a building to my left catches my eye. It's right up against the left-hand wall of the space, but as I start to walk towards it, the floor crumbles underneath me, fortunately depositing me right on top of a flat root; the corpse I saw falls. In the middle of the pit, I see a group of those squishy things; looking from above, I now see that their toothy mouthes make up the entire top of their cup-shaped heads - they're basically walking digestive bowls. I explore where the roots can take me thoroughly, but find nothing; only next to the pit do I find something, and that something is the poor fool, Siegmeyer of Catarina, fast asleep again.

Idiot. What is he doing here? If I wake him, he'll probably want to start fighting those creatures…Come to think of it, that might not be such a bad thing. It'll spare me some trouble, at least.

"Hello?" I call, standing right in front of him.

He snores.

"Hey!" I shout, deciding not to wake him with the Dark Hand.

"Mm! Oh-hoh!" he exclaims, suddenly coming to and drawing his long sword and pierce shield. "Excuse me. I was so absorbed in thought, I just drifted away. It must be the warmth. Well, what's on your mind?" He doesn't give me a chance to answer before quickly saying, "No, don't tell me. Those monsters making life difficult for you?"

"Er…"

"You need not be ashamed," he tells me patronizingly. "We are in the same boat." He pauses a moment, then adds, "You know, I really have run up quite a debt to you…Perhaps the time has come…Hmm…"

"For what?" I ask.

Even through his onion-shaped helmet, I can sense him giving me a long, hard look. "Um…Friend, I have an idea," he says solemnly at last. "A good one, really…I will rush those dire fiends, and you can slip away in the confusion. Please, friend, I owe you much more than this. By the honour of the knights of Catarina, allow me to assist you. And now, I go! Don't be slow!" Without even giving me a chance to say anything, he then jumps down into the pit, roaring with a battle cry. "C'mon! Over here, you fiends!" he shouts. "Perish, foul creatures! I am Siegmeyer of Catarina, and you shall feel my wrath!"

Bemused, I look on. Poor fool. But, as the fight goes on, my thoughts change: His sword is powerful, and the monsters quickly fall before him. Their souls flow into me, and not long after he finishes his cries, all of the monsters are dead. Surprised, I cast Fall Control and jump down to join him, finding myself knee-deep in poisonous mud, like the Blighttown swamp. One of the monsters dropped a red chunk of titanite (that's more like it), and the man himself is on the other side of the pit. Paying no mind to the poison that enters my system, I walk over to him.

Grunting with exhaustion, he looks up at me and gasps. "Why, you?!" he exclaims. "Didn't you get away? Well…you've saved me once again. You only ever save me…and I have failed you." He coughs, chokes, and I realize that somehow, he's badly injured. "Heavens me…my dear little Lin…" he moans. Then, he collapses and dies.

That was unexpected. I get some souls from his death, and he also leaves behind three Humanity sprites and a Speckled Stoneplate Ring - a ring that is essentially the Flame Stoneplate Ring, Spell Stoneplate Ring, _and_ Thunder Stoneplate Ring all in one, if slightly less powerful in each individual defense; I don't swap my rings out now, but I might at a later date, depending on what I find. Confused, I stare at the spot where he fell - there's no way that fight should have killed him. And…'Lin'? Who's that, I wonder?

Oh well. There's other stuff to be found down here in this muck - corpses, one that holds another chunk of red titanite, one that carries two shards of green titanite, and another that bears a large soulmass. Around a corner is another of those monsters, and this is how I discover how Siegmeyer was most likely hurt: in the limited movement of the mud, though I follow my winning strategy, it gets one hit on me, and that one hit hurts - and he was fighting about four at once. Past this, the path branches left or right, and I go right, around a large square hole that she warns me is bottomless - it was how she ended up killing most of the monsters, by luring them over here to fall to their deaths. There are actually three of these pits, I pass two more on my right as I walk around a large root-branch in a direction I initially think to be away from progress, but turns out to lead to stairs. Up the stairs is another monstrosity and a corpse bearing a chunk of red titanite, and a short jump down from here brings me to the floor where I can access the root bridge that will bring me up and out (though it takes me a few seconds to find it). Some Estus and purple moss are consumed in this process, but nothing worth worrying about.

So ends Siegmeyer of Catarina. Well, at least he gave me some Humanity sprites in the end, and a very rare and precious magic ring. His ending didn't happen to her, and she's sad; I don't care. Up the stairs I saw before, I check around the corners to make sure I'm not missing anything, then pass through another tower room to a long bridge, at the end of which I can see a headless demon. This one, she warns me, will respawn - and it's crazy how many souls I have right now, I almost certainly have more than enough to do everything I want with the bloodshield and then some. All I have to do is get past this thing, and I can open up a shortcut to here from the bell tower; I only take a moment to ready myself, and then I go charging in. Shame Siegmeyer isn't here to help me with this one.

It tries jumping at me to start. At first, I use magic, and when we're back far enough, I try to hide behind a root from its lightning like I did with Ornstien, but it proves to be just too far away to hit with spells when I do this. After a while, I manage to lure it into jump-attacking its way close enough to use the last of my Great Soul Arrows and a fair number of my Heavy Great Soul Arrows, though one of its lightning blasts does hit me (maybe I _should_ be wearing Siegmeyer's ring). Once this is no longer an option, I go in to use my sword. This isn't the toughest headless demon I've ever fought - or, if it is, I've gotten a lot stronger since the last one I faced. Its plunging attacks, however, prove as dangerous as ever, and though I get very close to killing it, one good blow on me kills me.

Back outside Lost Izalith. It's okay, nothing particularly dangerous is between me and my death spot, so long as I'm somewhat careful. I use the Twin Humanities, and kindle the flame with the second humanity so I have ten swallows of Estus on me instead of five, just in case. Then, I put on the charred ring and run out. The same path as before gets me in safely, and once I'm inside, I put on the Speckled Stoneplate Ring so I'm ready for both the fire-breathing statues and the lightning-shooting demon. With a little more use of Estus than is really necessary - just to be safe - I make it back to my death spot.

Okay, fighting this monster…Maybe I should use more magic, not try close combat until I've exhausted everything else I've got. Getting close to these things is always incredibly dangerous, and my new catalyst should see me through. This works - by the time I'm out of the Great versions of the Soul Arrows, it's badly hurt, and only one Heavy Great Soul Arrow misses it in the whole process. After that, it starts shooting lightning at me constantly from just too far away to shoot while still under cover; what's weird is that it takes an inordinate amount of time and distance backtracking before it gives up, even when I'm far too far away for it to hit me. Can these things get angry? Oh well; I wait for it to retreat to its former spot, then run out, this time with regular Soul Arrows ready. The simple spell chips away at its health, and by the time I'm back to the cover root, it's nearly dead. Knowing I'm almost there, I hide, expecting it to try lightning now. Instead, however, it swings its weapon; not being ready for this, I get hit once, twice, and I die.

 _So_ close! My idea works, I just wasn't careful enough; I will be this time. Those weird roots get me in trouble a couple of times against the fire-breathing statues, but I make it alright. More carefully this time…It, too, gets stuck on a root at one point, costing me several regular Soul Arrow castings as it hobbles at me but doesn't get closer; when I realize this and try to shoot a Heavy Great Soul Arrow, it realizes it at the same time and hits me with lightning, but I survive it and take cover. Three times I have to hit it with magic as we proceed along the bridge, then take cover and wait for it to go back to its post before going out again; the fourth time I go out, I have a handful of Soul Arrows left and only Heavy Soul Arrows remaining after that, but with one Soul Arrow remaining, it dies, leaving behind two chunks of weird titanite.

Finally, I can open up the shortcut. It's the same one I saw just before the fire demon's territory, she informs me, but there might be something else before I get to it…Warily, I jog across the bridge to see, my shield up. There's a crystal lizard in here, but me being too focused on guarding myself, it escapes untouched; down some steps, I see the door ahead of me, and there are some jumping beetles on this side, too. For a moment, I think maybe she was wrong. Then, I hear a groan - not a groan of anguish, but of delight. I don't recognize the voice right away, but when its owner comes running for me, I realize from the armor that it's Solaire - a beetle appears to have attached itself to his head. Even as he swings his sword at me, he's moaning with pleasure.

"Finally, I have found it, I have!" he manages. "My very own sun…I… _am_ the sun! I've done it…I have…Yes, I did it…I did!" After this, he only gives groans of sheer ecstasy.

During all this, he's attacking me. I'm not sure he even knows what he's doing - he's not Hollow, but there's something else going on, something presumably related to that bug on his head. He fights as well as ever, though, using lightning spears and expertly wielding his sword; at one point, I run up the stairs to take shelter from his lightning so I can drink from my Estus Flask. Most of the time, he keeps his shield on his back, two-handing his sword; this gives me both opportunity and challenge, as I can hit him more easily, but his sword hits me more powerfully. After I get used to some of his attack patterns, I go from defensive to offensive, and at last, he falls.

"Ahh, it's over…" he gasps, falling to the ground. "My Sun…it's setting…" As he fades away, his voice still echoes: "It's dark…so dark…" Then he's gone.

First Siegmeyer, now Solaire…I am indeed nearing the end of this quest, as everyone is dying. The great knight leaves behind two Humanity sprites, his sword and shield, his armor set, and his talisman. I look them over, searching for the source of his strength, but to my surprise, though some of the armor and his shield are specialized for him, they're only specialized in that he's painted sun designs on them, with perfectly normal paint - nothing he was carrying holds any special powers of its own. His strength came from within, from training and experience…For an idiot, he was the worthiest person to ever hold the title 'knight', possibly even more so than me. But now he's gone…lost to a hopeless quest. Pity.

Well, now there's nothing between me and the lift to the bell tower; I might as well get there. Along the way, I kill the jumping beetles, and one in the right-hand corner beside the door leaves behind a glowing carcass - it's not dead, actually, but it no longer moves. I can wear it on my head, like the thing Solaire was wearing…this, though, doesn't take control of my mind, only gives off a bright light. It's like a head lamp - like Cast Light, only permanent, at the cost of wearing a helmet. Why did the one on Solaire's head corrupt his mind instead of simply glowing, though? Really, it doesn't matter.

All that done, I put a hand on the door; it unlocks, and splits vertically into four panels, which all sink into the ground at different speeds. On the other side, there are four more beetles, and I kill them too. Then I go up. For comfort, once I get to the bonfire, I take it to the Abyss; I need to think.


	44. Chapter 43

Safe and alone, I absorb all the souls from the soulmasses I picked up - the enormous one gives more than the other two put together, and the amount I have now is staggering. Anything could be achieved with all this, anything at all. With a humanity also burning inside me, and no other use for it, I kindle this bonfire to full strength. Kaathe watches me impassively from the edge of the fire's range.

Before I use the souls on myself, I take them, first to the giant in Anor Londo (since he sells all the titanite material I lack), then to Andre (so he can ascend it to the needed level [I actually have to talk to him, then go back to the giant to get what I need, then go back to him again]), then back to the giant (to be able to buy the rest of the needed material), and finally to Rickert, and use the souls to buy and use titanite until my bloodshield is a magic bloodshield +10 - this eventually takes the slab of blue titanite I found in the crystal cave, and yes, in the end, it does prove to be worth it. Unfortunately, the chunks of normal titanite I've gathered don't help in this endeavor, only regular and large shards do, and I have no means of breaking the chunks down. Also, I put on the Cloranthy Ring a little ways into the trip, just to keep things moving; after getting help from the giant, I have to use the bonfire outside the chamber where the illusion of Gwynevere used to be, and this is how I discover that those two Undead who were probably Blades of the Darkmoon are definitely gone for good, more's the pity. Andre and Rickert both comment that they can't make use of the embers I'm carrying - Rickert even calling them "shoddy" and suggesting an old smith out in the country - and the giant doesn't say anything about them at all; as I thought, it's that skeleton smith that wants them. But will I ever need his help? I don't think so…so I won't bother with him. And, in the end, I discover that I didn't need to spend all those souls buying and using large shards of titanite, because the shield has to be at +5, not +10, to be ascended to a magic weapon - tens of thousands of souls wasted. Still, the trip _is_ worth it; as I suspected, being imbued with magic strengthens the shield's defense against magic - not nearly to the level of the Crest Shield, but still, a bit better than before.

After all that, I _still_ have plenty more than enough souls to strengthen myself, so I do, working towards being able to use the Moonlight Greatsword - I'm close! That done, I think of Logan, and decide to go visit him; with my other allies dying left and right, I have more than enough reason to be concerned now. Sure enough, he's gone from his spot. But where is he? It would have to be a place where nothing could attack him - he's a peaceful fellow - and he wouldn't go back into the cell tower for any reason…that leaves the crystal cave, the grove outside, and the place where I first found Seath. The grove is closest, so I check there first. He's not here, but I do find a golden golem standing out in the middle of the space - I have to kill a couple of blue ones before I have the golden one to myself, but since it wasn't here before, it's probably worth killing. It's a pushover, and a final jumping attack kills it; when it disintegrates, someone is standing where it was. For a moment, I think it's Siegmeyer - it looks just like him, in the Catarinan armor. When I walk around to face the person and they speak, though, I find out that it's actually a girl.

"It was you who rescued me?" she asks, her voice muffled by the onion-shaped helmet, just like Siegmeyer. "Why, thank you. I am Sieglinde of Catarina. I don't know how I ended up in that crystal…It wasn't terrible in there, but I could hardly move. I must think of some way to repay you."

Fresh blood. "If you don't mind, I can think of something…I'll come to collect later, if need be," I tell her, the Dark Hand pulsing under my skin.

"Oh! Have you seen my father?" she asks abruptly, apparently unbothered by my statement. "You wouldn't miss him. A suit of armor, just like mine?"

A suit of armor just like hers. Her name is Sieglinde…"Lin", Siegmeyer had said as he was dying. Could she be…? "I…think I have, yes," I say cautiously.

"Thank goodness!" she exclaims, relief dripping from her voice. "I knew he was here somewhere. Well then, now I must find him. Thanks again, truly. Now if he'll just stay put, and keep out of trouble."

It's a bit late for that, but it's really not my business to tell her. Maybe after I've sucked her dry…For now, I give her a knightly bow, and go. A blue chunk of titanite I didn't notice when I took down the two blue golems glimmers for me to pick up on the way back to the ladder up to the tower. Logan isn't here, and I don't want to explore the crystal cave unless I must; that leaves the room at the top of the tower where Seath used to be. Apart from one arrow catching me, nothing happens on the way up; I drink from my Estus Flask when the lift brings me to the top just to be safe. Then, I climb to the top of the stairs, look through the doorway, and see Logan…naked except for a loincloth and his big hat.

Oh dear. His catalyst and shield are drawn, and he'll probably attack me like Solaire did - he's not Hollow, his skin (which I can see far too much of) is full and healthy, but whatever sort of madness has struck him, he's almost certainly unstable. Raising my shield, I walk into the room to meet him. He says nothing, just comes at me and attacks. Most of the fight, he keeps his shield up, a small leather one; he only moves it to swipe with a sword or raise his catalyst to cast magic. Only once do I let him finish casting a spell; it's something identical to that beam of power Seath breathed across the ground to make crystal spikes sprout up. Other than that, I don't give him a chance to attack, and after three total swipes of my sword, he's dead. Still he says nothing as he falls and fades away. Where he was, he leaves behind his big hat and his catalyst - which has become crystallized - and the magic he was using: White Dragon Breath, a powerful and hard-to-use spell that does indeed mimic Seath's magic, though the crystals don't curse. Something about his infatuation with Seath the Scaleless drove him to this, of that much I am certain; I can't use any of the things he leaves behind, but that's okay.

Looking at this magic, I remember that Dusk of Oolacile still has some spells to teach me, one of which being a repair spell worth its weight in souls, and the other two seemingly useless but definitely affordable to me now. I go to see her, transporting myself to the church bonfire and going down through the outer edge of Darkroot Garden. Overconfidence nearly gets me killed with the blue crystal golems outside the lake, as they fall in three swings of my sword, but I cut them down. Dusk greets me happily, and I learn all the rest of her magic. While I'm here, I jump in the lake to clean off - I've been to the top and bottom of the world, I'm sweaty and filthy. As I clean up, I think on it, and realize Griggs offered a spell that Logan didn't; I'm collecting magic anyway, I might as well see if he'll give it to me. Did Ingward have a magic, too…? If so, will he give it to me even though I'm a Darkwraith? Well, there's no harm in checking.

Really, I'm just looking for things to do. It's hard to believe how close I am…the soul of the Witch of Izalith was right in front of me, though I didn't go for it - once I have that, I will be able to face and kill Lord Gwyn; I need to be sure I'm ready. Miracles aren't for me, and pyromancy is too limited; the least I can do is learn all the magic in Lordran. Will it help me? Maybe not, but it won't hurt to try. Relatively clean, I run down to the bonfire outside drake valley to dry off, then take it to Firelink Shrine where Griggs still waits.

"Can you teach me more sorcery?" I ask him.

"Oh, hello," he says. "Well of course I could teach you more sorceries, but…now that you've found Master Logan, I don't imagine I can be of much help."

"You can," I assure him, not feeling a need to tell him that I just put Master Logan out of his madness-induced misery. There's one spell here I didn't know, Aural Decoy; it's cheap, and I buy it. "Thank you," I tell him.

"All right. That'll do it," he says. "That should help you on your journey. May we meet again."

We probably won't, as I have everything I could possibly want from him now, but I don't say that. Instead, I go down to the New Londo Ruins, where I now feel more at home than ever, using a cursed arm to cut through the ghosts that stand in my way. By no means am I careful, running into rooms without killing anything I know will be behind me and swinging my sword, but only one drink of Estus gets me to Ingward - it also only takes the one cursed arm, but two ghosts give me two more each on the way.

"Magnificent," Ingward says when I approach. "You defeated the Four Kings. Impressive, even for a bearer of the Lordvessel. And with this, my purpose is exhausted. I have not seen the sun for a long time. Perhaps I could do with a change…"

And that's all. He doesn't offer me anything, not even to break a curse if I have one. What's more, his words make me uneasy - no matter that he doesn't seem to realize I'm a Darkwraith and am following Kaathe, moving from a long-held place has meant only death for the other people I've recently seen travel. Slightly concerned, I return to Firelink Shrine. It's not really a problem - he would have served Lord Gwyn, he helped seal away the Four Kings and Darkstalker Kaathe with them - but still, all this change really makes the fact that I'm near the end sink in. After I rest at the bonfire in Firelink Shrine, however, I turn around, and see a patch of red among some of the still-standing ruins. Ingward is here now! Still uneasy, I approach him.

"Hello," I say hesitantly. "How…are you?"

"Oh, hello," he says cheerfully. "The sunlight made me wince, and now I've come back to this dark hole! So what brings you here? I will help you in any way I can."

"Do you know any sorceries?" I ask him.

He knows one, just the one - a spell to counter curse buildup. It's cheap, so I take it; with that, I have obtained all of the sorceries in Lordran. Sure, I can't use a fair amount of it, but I'll have a lifetime - an eternity - to improve and master them, as the Dark Lord.

I bid Ingward farewell, and he nods in return. Then, at last, I go back down to the firelands - it's time to get that last soul. Resting at this point is out of the question - I'm so very, very nearly there! In my eagerness, I'm so fast to go that I actually see the lift rise up to the bell tower as I run out to use it - before, it was up by the time I got there. The shortcut is open now, and just as I'm descending the first root, I think to equip the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring and ready Hidden Body so I can sneak up on the crystal lizard. Two hits of my sword are all I manage to get on it, it escapes me at the last minute; I don't care. The headless demon is back, so I cast Hidden Body again and run past it - I don't want to bother with it right now. This gets me past it, and then I swap out the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring for the Flame Stoneplate Ring, cut my way through a bunch of fire-breathing statues, and make it to the wall of white light nearly unharmed.

The last Lord. This will be tricky, she warns me, but at this point, she can't hide the solution from me. It _is_ a trick - hardly a fight, more like a puzzle. On the other side of the white light is a ramp; I slide down it, down and down and down, and at the bottom, I discover the source of all these weird roots: the Bed of Chaos, a creature apparently made from roots and fire. Two orbs of orange light flank it, and I know I need to destroy them. Not even taking the time to look at the beast with fingers and a face made of rooty tentacles, I run to the right; once I'm sheltered among the roots twisting around inside the orb, I swing my sword at the branches in front of me, bashing my way through to where something glows, and I break it. Fire erupts on the monster's back, and claws sprout from the flames; this was expected, but when I try to run to the other side, the floor crumbles right in front of me as a claw swipes me, and I fall to my death - though I could have survived the hit.

One down - I just have to break the other, then work my way into its core. Back at Firelink Shrine is where I rise, but that's okay, it's not too much further away from my destination than the closest bonfire; I use a Humanity sprite, then descend. This gives me another chance to catch the lizard, and I try the same tactic; I get it this time, and get two chunks of twinkling titanite - whether or not I'll ever use them, I don't know, nor do I care. Nearly 20,000 souls were at my death spot, but really, those don't even matter to me anymore - I just want to get to the end. The headless demon hits me in the back once, but I keep running, dodging lighting by sound and drinking from my Estus Flask to be safe. When I get to the wall of white light again, I'm a bit more hurt than last time, but another drink of Estus fixes it.

After I slide down the long, long slope this time, the first orb is already broken; I don't bother trying to recover my death spot, I just head for the one to my left - the souls don't matter compared to what I'm really here for. The ground crumbles under my feet, though, and I fall to my death. That's okay; now my death spot will be on the way. I use another Humanity sprite, then go back again. No need to worry about the lizard this time, I only use the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring and Hidden Body to get past the headless demon. So close…so close…! I'm so eager, I accidentally cast Fall Control a second time when I get to the bridge, and I have to wait for it to wear off before I can cast Hidden Body, because those spells can't both be active at the same time; the wait is agony. It almost doesn't matter anyway - the demon very nearly kills me. Still, I survive, and I take a drink of Estus and keep going. Another swig of Estus before the white light is all I need; my death spot is even at the top of the ramp!

This time, I'm a bit slower in how I proceed, and I avoid falling into the holes that open up, though I'm very close at one point. Cautiously, I dodge, and dodge, staying on the outside edge…when I get close to my goal, the gap in the floor splits all the way across to a root by the wall, blocking me. "Damn," I mutter, running back around. "Damn, damn, damn…" Taking the inside path brings me within range of the monster's long, rooty fingers, and it swipes at me. Once, I survive, drink Estus, and run; twice, I survive, drink Estus, and run; thrice, I block it, and then I'm there. Again, I smash my way through branches to the thing that glows, and it breaks. More glowing, clawed roots sprout from the fire on the beast's back. Yes, I'm so close…While I try to get ready for what I need to do, it starts summoning fire storms that erupt through the floor; I figure I'm safe here, way in this corner and out of its reach, but I turn out to be wrong, and I die.

It's fine, it's fine. Both orbs of force are broken now, and the floor is crumbling…the only thing left is, well, tricky, and I'm not sure I want to use Humanity sprites for this part when the last step is so fiddly…but damn it, I've come this far! Casting caution to the winds, I use my second-to-last Humanity sprite. Who knows? Maybe Ingward can spare some humanity later, if it comes to that.

Down again. I slip and fall off the first root, but Fall Control is still in effect, so it doesn't matter; maybe I'll do it this way in the future, if I ever do have to do this again. That headless demon always tries to kill me, and it always fails; a swig of Estus to heal me from what it does manage to do, another to heal the few burns I get from the statues, and I'm at the monster again. Here's where things get tricky: I can't hit this monster, but it has a weak spot hidden underneath it, and striking that with anything will kill it instantly. Getting to it, though, is tough; it's only possible when most of the floor has crumbled, and requires landing on a certain root growing _beneath_ the floor - meaning one way or the other, I have to jump, and I'll succeed or die. That is, if I even manage to get close enough to try to make the jump at all - the spot I need to jump through is within the beast's fingers' range, and they can knock me off-course easily if I don't time this perfectly. It won't be easy…but she did it, so I can too.

When I get to it, the floor hasn't broken where it needs to yet; I have to get close enough for the monster's rage to shake it loose. This costs me a couple of hits, but I heal with Estus, and then the floor crumbles. Immediately, I run back, out of the way of the hands, and look; there's the root, right there in the middle, that must be it - it's flat and wide, I can stand on it, I know I can. All I have to do is jump to it…and this is the problem: as with my attempts to return to the Northern Undead Asylum, jumping doesn't come easily to me. Though I do time it so that the monster doesn't hit me - that part's easier than she made me believe - I barely catch the edge of it before sliding off to my death.

 _So_ _close_! One Humanity, one last try, that should be all it takes, right? Now that I've seen what I have to do, I've learned it, I can do it. This time, I jump down to the lair of the jumping beetles, not even bothering with the root, since I have Fall Control in effect; whether or not this is faster, I can't say, but I don't care. Along the way, I practice jumping, and am somewhat confident in my ability by the time I'm there. Neither the headless demon nor the fire-breathing statues manage to touch me this time, and I don't even remember to take off the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring until after I traverse the wall of white light; this must be a good sign. It's the Cloranthy Ring I equip now - my biggest challenge now is jumping, not fire, so I might as well. Will it cost me? Maybe. Time to find out.

No use; I get caught between the root fingers and the flaming spikes, trying to drink Estus to keep myself safe rather than taking any opportunity to jump. All I accomplish is to recover my death spot; then, root fingers swipe at me, and a spike impales me, and I die.

Now I'm Hollow, with no means of recovering. Or is there? Ingward's here, and that Catarinan girl is at the Duke's Archives…she said she owed me, and I think it's time to collect, so I go there first. When I go out into the grove, though, she's gone. Where is she?! Something inspires me to check the underground lake, I don't know what; desperate, I try it. I warp to the dragon and run all the way to the bonfire at the other end of the lake, but Sieglinde isn't there. In that case, she's nowhere, I'm told. How do I know this? It doesn't matter. Desperate, run over to Ingward.

"Sorry old man," I mutter, and I take out the Dark Hand and grab him.

"What? No!" he gasps as I suck out his life. He does indeed have humanity to spare, and when he stands, like all the others, he doesn't say or do anything about what I just did, though he _must_ know what my use of the Dark Hand means.

Alright, my problem is fixed, for now at least; time to try again. Like last time, neither demon nor statue manages to so much as touch me, so at least I have the path down. Now…I slide down again. Will this be it? I'm so excited, I nearly forget to swap out the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring for the Cloranthy Ring. Everything lines up perfectly…except my jump - I jump, nearly get it, but just barely slip off.

That could not have been closer. Another humanity from Ingward ("What are you doing?!"), and I go down again. Any closer - _any_ closer - and the last Lord Soul is mine. Yet another flawless trip, and I'm there again. This time, my jump is perfectly lined up, but the monster's hand knocks me out of the way, and I die. Damn it!

One more time. I hope Ingward doesn't run out of humanity before I make it…This time, all he says is "Cease!", and then it's back down to the pits of hell. The run isn't perfect this time - the demon almost kills me, and one of the statues burns me - but I make it, and that's what matters. Somehow, though, a claw knocks me down, and then a hand swipes me before I can even get up, and I die instantly.

Ingward's an old man, he can't have much more humanity to spare…and that means I need to go do something she used to do all the time: Humanity farming. There's a spot right next to the bonfire in the sewers where ten undead rats are swarmed, and killing them over and over gives plenty of Humanity sprites. Ahead of time, I suck out the last of Ingward's humanity ("Stop that!") to increase my chances of finding the sprites - not use it, at least not yet - then go to the sewer bonfire and do as she suggests. Greed is part of human nature, and the more humanity burns within a person, the more loot they can amass, that's just how it works; shame I only have the one. Still, doing this doesn't give me a lack of souls, either - I get 780 per run, between the ten rats and the one ragged Hollow outside the door, and if I do this enough times to be able to strengthen myself, I should have plenty of sprites *and the ability to use the Moonlight Greatsword! That's how she used to do this, anyway.

Run out, swing at Hollow; chase five rats into corner, swing until they're all dead; run to box, let rat jump out, kill it; chase rat off ledge, plunge-attack it; kill remaining three rats; run back to bonfire; repeat. Always check rat corpses to see if they're glowing before moving on. Again and again, I run through the same section of sewer. Instead of getting tiring, the repetitive task is oddly relaxing, and I find myself falling into a sort of trance. The runs start to blur past…After sixty-eight goes, I have enough souls, but I do it two more times to take it to an even 70, since I figure my equipment's getting pretty beat up by now and needs to be repaired. My next moment of full consciousness is back at Firelink Shrine.

 _You're welcome,_ whispers a voice from my pendant.

I blink the pseudo-sleep from my eyes. _You did that,_ I think, amazed. _I would never go to all that trouble, that was you._

 _Yes._

Shaking my head, I check to see what I got; I find a whole thirty-eight sprites in my supply. It seems to her like it should have been more than just barely over half the number of times I did runs, but when _she_ did it, she had a special ring that boosted avarice, a ring she happened upon in Sen's Fortress that I am _not_ going to go looking for. All the same, this should be more than enough to get me through whatever lies ahead. In celebration, I repair my equipment, restore my body with the humanity I took from Ingward hours ago, then strengthen my essence so that I can properly wield the Moonlight Greatsword…or I would, had I not slightly underestimated how many souls I needed to repair all of my equipment. But it's okay, the Hollows just outside this spot are enough to make up the difference; sheepishly, I grab what I need, then finally do what I meant to do all along.

The Moonlight Greatsword is huge, and I have to rest it on my armored shoulder just to carry it around, even now that I'm capable of using it properly. It's still a beautiful weapon. Maybe I'll never use it, but just being able to feels like a triumph. For now…to the pits of hell again.

A first for me: The headless demon manages to hit me, even nearly kills me, but none of the statues manage to so much as singe me. Then it's back to the slope; I slide down, and my death spot, oh, it's still here! Just need to make the one jump - I _can_ do this…but not this time; I miss.

Okay, again - I have all the tries in the world now. On the way, I try practicing precision jumping with the roots growing out of the ground in the jumping beetles' territory; by the time I get through, I think I'm at least competent. Not a scratch on me, and I'm back again. Lining up the jump, timing it…and… _yes_! This time, I get to the root. I'm not out of danger yet, though - now I have to run under the mess of wiggling root-tentacles that is this monster's face. It manages to swipe me with its hand once, but I survive, and I don't fall off; I take a drink of Estus and keep running. This brings me to a long passage thickly blocked by brittle root-branches; I smash and smash and smash my way through, until I reach a large, black, burning _thing_. Before I do anything, I try to get a good look at it, figure out what it is - is that black fire and orange fire, or is it a black thing with orange fire? - but my hesitation gets me hit with a fire storm blast. Somehow, I survive, and I take a swig of Estus to be safe, then swing my sword. The thing turns out to be some sort of bug, and one blow causes it to squirm and writhe in death throes, then disappear, leaving me with the Lord Soul. Where the bug thing was, a bonfire appears.

Wow. At last, the final piece of the puzzle is in my hands. I sit down, use the souls I get from my victory, then stand up and take a closer look at the burning core of power, to see what story it might tell me. The Witch of Izalith apparently tried to duplicate the First Flame - the great Flame that Gwyn (and later, my love, as well as others) sacrificed himself to create, to keep the Age of Fire from ending - but instead created an abomination of chaos and fire, the mother of all demons. Was that bug the mother of all demons? Either way, this is a powerful soul…and it will fill the Lordvessel.


	45. Chapter 44

At last…it's time. Time to end all of this. Am I…really ready? If nothing else, I'm going to go wash off before I bring this last piece to Kaathe - sure, his mouth will slime me up a bit, but at least he won't be tasting sewer muck and sweat and ash - it's the least I can do for him. I use the bonfire to bring me to the church, then go around the outside edge to the lake.

Ahh…the water is so soothing after that ungodly heat. First, I wash the dirt and ash off my armor; then I strip down to clean myself. While I do this, something starts to bother me; I take hold of my pendant (which I never take off) and ask her, _Why did you help me so much with this final Lord Soul? I thought you didn't want me to become the Dark Lord._

 _You were going to do it anyway,_ she replies. _I figured…you might as well get here, sooner rather than later._

Still, something about her answer bothers me; I can't put my finger on it. _Well, thank you,_ I say at last; _I'm so glad this is finally going to be over._

 _Me too._

 _What?_

But she doesn't respond.

Frowning, I finish washing off, then run to the nearby bonfire to dry. Listening to the pounding of my bare feet against the mossy ground, I realize that this is the last time I'll ever feel vegetation under my feet with the skin of a man, Undead or no - if ever I see fit to walk in the woods again, I will be a god.

So, I go to the Abyss. Darkstalker Kaathe is waiting patiently for me; I approach him, triumphant.

"What is it?" he asks, as always. "I am your guardian. Go on, state your wish."

"I wish for you to bring me to the Lordvessel…for the last time," I tell him proudly.

"Very well," he says. "Be still. Entrust thy flesh to me."

Obediently, I hold still as the primordial serpent takes me into his mouth and brings me to the altar of the Lordvessel. Out of respect for this moment, once I'm there, I put away my weapons and remove my helm - this is it, this is the moment I've been working for. Hardly daring to believe it, I slowly walk up the stairs and sit down in front of the bowl of light. Then, I take out the last Lord Soul, and offer it up. As the final flame drops from my hand into the bowl, fire erupts inside - and even flows out of - the gold, and the doors beyond the altar open, revealing white light.

"Magnificent," Kaathe says when I turn back to look at him. "You have followed my teachings faithfully. You are the true lord of men, the Dark Lord. Now, go forth, and rid us of that enfeebled Gwyn. I, Kaathe, shall await you here."

Overwhelmed with the moment, I give him a formal bow - not of submission, but of thanks. And then…I walk back up to the altar, past the Lordvessel, and through the doors.

White. Everything around me is whiteness, fog carpeting the stone steps I'm descending, flowing in the direction of a black hole. Ghosts slowly walk past, from left to right, one wall of light to the other; I can't tell who they are - maybe they're all the same person. Then, I reach the black, and a wide doorway set in a stone wall materializes. I step into the threshold, and through it, I see a world of gray ash and black soot, things like trees that have withstood an explosion and a crumbling tower in the distance. I've seen this place once before, in her vision: This is the Kiln of the First Flame…and Lord Gwyn is in that tower.

No longer at leisure, I put my helm back on and take out my weapons - my journey isn't over. Climbing over gray ridges, the ash crunching beneath my boots, I being to walk down the slope that leads to the bridge to the tower. Soon, I'm met with the first knight - silver, not black, though it ought to be black…perhaps the ash has dyed it silver? This one is just like the first one I killed in the Northern Undead Asylum; I manage to get a backstab on it, but though I swing and swing, it swings harder, and somehow, it impales me. I die.

Humiliated, I rise again beside the frothing Lordvessel; I still have plenty of Humanity sprites, this is no setback. After I sit down and restore myself, I run back in. This time, two backstabs and a few slashes kill the knight, and it drops a chunk of titanite; around the fallen log - chunk of stone wall? - it was standing behind, I proceed. Past more and more waves of ash, the second knight comes at me, this one with a greatsword - I can't block it, and it kills me quickly.

Again, I rise beside the Lordvessel. Restore myself and keep going, make more progress each time - that's how this goes, and that's what I do. First knight down, chunk of titanite, and also a black knight shield - they _are_ black, I knew they were. Pick up death spot, keep out of the way of the greatsword, two backstabs, second knight down, chunk of red titanite. Then, finally, I round some mounds and crest some more waves of gray powder, and find myself at the stone bridge that will bring me to Gwyn's prison. Unfortunately, I make a mistake, thinking there's ground where there isn't, and slide off the ash into a bottomless pit - and die.

Further. Every time, further. Keep going. When I revive my body this time, it's only now that I notice that the holder the Lordvessel was placed in looks a lot like those roots from the Bed of Chaos down below…oh well, probably no relation. One knight down, chunk of titanite; second knight down, red chunk of titanite (and the black knight's greatsword, too); death spot; bridge. Not falling this time, I climb a ridge of ash to make sure I'm far enough, then drop and start to cross the charred stone, which is crumbled on the left side and discolored green and pink as though half burned away in an explosion. On the way, a third knight attacks me, but with some clever maneuvering on the narrow bridge, I kill it and get another chunk of titanite. This 'bridge' is more a series of crossbeams connecting towers, really - I have to traverse a length of stone, reach and circumvent a tower, then cross another bridge of stone. There are also branching paths, and it's a bridge that goes directly to the right where I kill the knight; and beyond it, next to the tower it leads to, is a corpse bearing a full set of black knight armor. Useless.

Glowing in the distance behind me marks where I came from; the tower ahead growing closer marks where I've always been going. Now I'm on a wide set of spiral stairs that lead down to the door to where Gwyn waits. Halfway down, a fourth knight comes, this one with a greataxe; I kill it with embarrassing ease, and it drops a white chunk of titanite. Near the bottom, another knight comes, this with a halberd that it wields elegantly; backstabbing is a nice trick, and I kill this quickly, gaining a blue chunk of titanite. Those are all the colors of titanite chunks…odd, I never really noticed before now that though there are green shards, there are no green chunks - and though there are red, blue, and white chunks, there are no such shards. Huh.

Then, at long last, I climb a few more stairs and reach a wide archway blocked by white light. Lord Gwyn - what's left of him - waits beyond. He's waiting for me to 'kill' him so I'll burn up in the fire and reset everything, renewing it all for another however-many-years. Of course, it's been only weeks since she was here - but regardless, he's expecting me to buy him more time. The coward will be disappointed. He has a flaming sword, her memories tell me that; in preparation, I take off the Cloranthy Ring and put on the Flame Stoneplate Ring. After that, knowing full well what I'll see on the other side, I traverse the wall of white light.

Right away, the monster with a flaming greatsword comes charging for me. I underestimated his strength, though I do my best to adjust, and soon have a sort of even footing. But at one point, he grabs me, lifts me into the air, and casts a fire magic, and that's the end of it.

Now that I've tried it, I wonder…maybe I should use the Dragon Crest Shield for the fire, and wear the Cloranthy Ring - not being able to catch my breath quickly was what got me hit the most during that brief exchange. Yes, I'll do that.

Nothing of note happens on the way through the Kiln this time, apart from the third knight giving me another black knight shield as well as the titanite chunk. Only when I'm back at the light do I swap out my shields; then, it's in again. One swing, and one blast of fire magic, and I'm dead in barely more time than it takes to blink.

Am I really ready for this? I have to be…I've come this far. There are plenty of Humanity sprites in my stock, so I'll keep trying, at least until I run out of those. Also, while I'm at a fire, I swap out my Soul Spear spell for Strong Magic Shield - that first blow from Gwyn's sword is something I can't avoid or really even block, when he comes charging at me, so even a short-lived spell that boosts a shield's power would go a long way for this fight. Stunlocking the first knight in a series of three backstabs is tremendously fun, and the third one jumps straight to its death (costing me the titanite, but whatever), but apart from that, the trip back to Gwyn's place is uneventful. Just in time, I remember that I need to swap out the Dark Hand for my catalyst if I'm going to make use of this spell; then I use it, and enter. The spell works, and she told me that the trick to this fight is - like with Ornstein - keeping a stone pillar between me and Gwyn at all times; the fight lasts longer, and I get a few more swings in (if no more hits, because of the stone pillar), but even though I try to play it safe, he stunlocks me out from behind the pillar, and while I put up as much of a resistance as I can, he kills me.

She wouldn't give up, so neither will I; I go down and in again. I'm overconfident on the way, and the knight with the greataxe knocks me to my death; that's fine, it's no major setback. Once more. This time, the knight with the greatsword kills me; again, no major setback, I'll keep trying - the idea of stopping to rest now is painful to say the least. Again, the knight with the greatsword kills me…it's not stopping, but maybe I should grab my death spot and use the souls to reinforce the Dragon Crest Shield, which I've been using now. Grabbing my death spot and killing the knight with the greatsword gives me 8,000 souls, so yes, that's what I'll do.

I go to Anor Londo for the giant - he sells twinkling titanite, and with just one more, I can reinforce the Dragon Crest Shield three times. Of course, I could also reinforce my helm to its full strength…but the shield is more important right now, really. By mistake, I use the bonfire once I'm there, and what's more, one chunk of twinkling titanite costs exactly 8,000 souls. Unwilling to let my mistake stand, I run into the castle and kill a silver knight to fund the rest of this trip. Then, I discover that each upgrade will take 2,000 souls, so I have to go back in and kill five more silver knights. I'm already here, though, and no bonfire has the power to take me back to the Lordvessel, so if I'm going to be swallowed by Kaathe again, I need to make this whole thing worth it. Silver knights aren't too hard to come by around here, and I get what I need without much trouble, all things considered; I even kill one that has a giant bow, getting me an extra 300 souls. At last, one, two, three, and I'm done. The bonfire brings me back to the Abyss, Kaathe brings me back to the Lordvessel after I apologize, and…

…oh, I'm tired. Can I really defeat Gwyn like this? All the adrenaline is wearing off; I've done a lot today. My goal is within sight, within reach, but…slamming myself against a wall repeatedly when I'm not at full strength is foolish. _She_ wouldn't stop now, but that's because she was a stubborn idiot; taking a rest is the smart thing to do. So, I curl up by the heat that's pouring off the Lordvessel and sleep, ready to finish this when I awaken.


	46. Chapter 45

Now, it's time. Only one last obstacle stands between me and my destiny, my time as the Dark Lord, and it will fall. Ready, I rise, and march in. The first knight gives me its sword, I manage to push the third to its death with a second backstab (excessive, perhaps, but effective), the fifth knight gives me its halberd, and then I'm there - I only needed one swallow of Estus to get here, due to the second knight's greatsword, and that's not much of a problem. Once at the wall of light, I cast Strong Magic Shield and enter.

The fight goes well at first, at least defensively - I manage to get a pillar between me and Gwyn, and from here, I'm mostly safe. However, I can't hit him through the pillar, my drake sword isn't long enough…maybe I'll consider using the Moonlight Greatsword, that gives off a wave of power with each strike. In any case, he grabs me once and blasts me, and somehow, I survive and manage to get behind a pillar to heal, but then he hits me a couple of times and stunlocks me, won't give me a chance to get behind the pillar - each swing of his flaming sword brings him just as far as my feet can take me, so I can't do anything. When I'm on the verge of dying, in desperation, I try jumping to safety; a swing of his sword strikes during this, and I'm dead.

It's okay, I just woke up - I can and will do this. Another Humanity sprite gets me ready, and I charge in again. Sliding down the ash onto the bridge hurts me slightly this time for some reason (even though it never has before), and I push the third knight to its death with the first backstab; apart from that, nothing of note happens on the trek back. Again, I cast Strong Magic Shield and enter. Lord Gwyn _will_ fall before me, just as his son did.

This time, the fight goes _much_ better - I'm learning his attack patterns, and to keep the pillar between me and him at all times no matter what. For this fight, staying safe is more important than hurting the enemy, I have to play a long game; I only swing at certain times, and if I miss, I don't try to fix it. Slowly, I begin to chip away at his strength. If I can just keep this up, this will be it. But he too chips away at my health through my shield, and at one point, I'm okay, but injured; I try to hit him, and he manages to kick my shield out of the way, then swipe his sword at me, and I fall.

That could have been victory. My only problem was that I wasn't careful enough; I can be more careful. Confident now, I run back to try again, not forgetting to restore myself before I do so. Nothing interesting happens on the way apart from the third knight giving me its sword and the slide down the ash slightly hurting me again (why is it doing that all of a sudden?); then, I cast the shield spell again, and enter, now with the knowledge that I can end this. I'm used to the pattern, and I quickly make it back to the pillar and get into it; somehow, though, he gets me out from behind the pillar and impales me, and I'm dead within moments.

Cheap shot - I know for a fact that I can do this now, I won't let random nonsense discourage me. Back again; the fall doesn't hurt me this time, and the third knight manages to get one swipe on me, then jumps to its death as if knowing it doesn't want to get in my way. However, the fourth knight manages to kill me. Okay, I'll try again. I've gotten the hang of kicking the third knight to its death after one backstab, and the fourth one jumps straight to its death before it even gets to me this time - I wonder if I can make it do that all the time? That fall hurts me slightly, but less than before (somehow), and at last, I'm back to Gwyn's lair. Unfortunately, I accidentally roll away from the first blow, and it lands, which is a bad start. Hoping to find a better pillar - a thinner one, maybe, that I can hit him through - I end up circling around the room a couple of times, and this eventually costs me my life.

Don't fix what isn't broken, I suppose - I'll go back to the old pillar. Though the fourth knight nearly kills me this time, I survive, and knock it to the edge, where it falls off once it starts to do anything; apart from that, there's nothing worth noting on the way this time. Surprisingly, the drake sword is still holding out pretty well - I won't need to repair it for a while, even though I've been hitting it against rock…Maybe I can get him to beat his flaming sword against the rocks until it breaks? Heh, unlikely. Well, it's time for another go with the former Great Lord.

Instead of my usual pillar, I go to the first one I reach after recovering my death spot - it's not really any different. Something I learn this time is that, since he's taller than me and his sword is huge, unless he's swinging directly at the ground (as he does with his initial flying-jump attack), he can't hit me if I'm rolling. Knowing this turns the odds in my favor, and for a minute, I'm certain I have this one. However, in my new confidence, I forgot to be extra-careful about keeping my health up with Estus, and when he manages to get a good hit on me, it's only a matter of time before I fall.

Learning is progress, and I'm not discouraged; all I can do is try again, and so I do. A bit of math error gets me hit by the first and third knights, the second one gives me another greatsword, the third dies in a spot where its treasure is over an open chasm and I can't reach it, the fourth knight gets a pretty solid hit on me, and too much enthusiasm with the fifth gets me hit then too - costing me three swallows of Estus overall before I even get to Gwyn - but I make it, and that's what matters. During this fight, I learn not to get so attached to a single pillar while fighting him - twice, moving to a different pillar saves my life. The third time, though, he jumps so that he's so far away when I get behind a pillar that I can't keep my shield pointed directly at him, and though he pauses, I'm afraid to drink from my Estus Flask; this fear, which leads to hesitation, gets me killed once more.

There's nothing I could be doing better, I just have to not make any mistakes. That's not so difficult, is it? It shouldn't be, at least. Wearing the Cloranthy Ring is definitely a huge help fighting this fallen Lord, so I know my equipment is optimal; and I, too, am plenty strong. Nothing but chance and marginal error is keeping me from victory. That and…slipping to my death. Yes, trying to go down this time, I somehow slide off the mound of ash at just the perfect angle to put me between one of the sideways-branching paths and the part I'm trying to land on to get me killed. Annoyed, and somewhat embarrassed, I press on. I've used a lot of Humanity sprites doing this…I may actually have to go back and farm some more, if this continues. But it shouldn't continue. That knight with the greatsword costs me two swigs of Estus on its own this time, but it turns out that I can indeed lure that fourth one to jumping to its death as it runs to meet me, and I do. Clasping my pendant for luck, ready for it all, I traverse the white light one more time.

Everything starts as normal, mostly - I actually forget to cast Strong Magic Shield before I enter, but the damage this costs me is quickly fixed by Estus - and I'm pretty sure I'm getting it. I'm not entirely sure how he kills me this time, actually, but he does - my dodges that were meant to go around the pillar somehow put me against it, after he somehow hits me as though I wasn't taking shelter. It was an unfair loss. Keep going, keep going.

My sword is still holding out, somehow, though I know I'll have to fix it to be safe before too much longer. Although, I do manage to get the third and fourth knights to jump to their deaths without using my sword at all, so maybe it won't be as soon as I worry it might. Not forgetting the spell this time, I run in. At one point during the fight, I'm certain I'm dead - I've died this way before, rolling against the pillar while Gwyn swings mercilessly - but somehow, with tactics and intelligence, I make it out, and into safety where I can recover. Never again does he manage to stunlock me into death; however, after just escaping him at one point, I go to take a drink of Estus, and his sword hits me _through_ the stone pillar, hard enough to kill me. Again, I probably just wasn't being careful enough.

Another shield from the first knight, and the trek back in is otherwise uneventful - pushing the third knight and luring the fourth knight to their deaths is getting easy. Fighting Lord Gwyn is another story; this battle lasts a very long time. I also notice some things glimmering in far corners of the room like white prism stones, but they're of no consequence; I focus on Gwyn. The only time I even try to hit him is after he tries and fails to grab me, and I'm getting a better sense of how close to him I have to be to land a hit versus how close I can risk getting. After a while, when I get about twice as far as I did during my previous record, if you will, I start to think that maybe this is it…but then, somehow, he manages to knock me out of cover and kill me before I can block.

It's all about luck! Well, and skill, but I've gotten pretty skillful at this; luck is the only thing left. Now that I've gotten so painfully close, I know for a _fact_ that I am strong enough and well-equipped enough to take Gwyn down; I run in again, eager, certain. The fourth knight puts up a good fight, and refuses to fall to its death; after I kill it, I get its greataxe, and I also get another halberd from the fifth knight. Between a mistake near the start and the knight with the greataxe, it's taken me two drinks of Estus to get to Gwyn this time; I hope eighteen will be enough.

When I enter again, it's just like last time. My death spot is actually in an inconvenient place, and I don't make the mistake of trying to get it until the fight brings us to the pillar at the back of the room and I have a chance to do something, which I take to grab it instead of attacking. More and more, I'm learning Gwyn's attack patterns…it's hard to tell, but I think he might actually be Hollow. The fight rages on, and on…at one point, I misjudge which direction he's going around the pillar and dodge right into his range, and I know I'm dead. By some miracle, however, I manage to get behind the pillar again. Careful, careful…the golden rule of this entire quest has been, never get cocky, even when you think you're near victory - _especially_ when you think you're near victory. I follow it, and even when Gwyn is on his last few blows, I take no chances, staying behind the stone, watching his empty left hand for the movement that means he's going to try a grab, just like I would do with my right hand if I were using the Dark Hand to suck humanity out of someone. Odd that he doesn't have a shield…I guess he doesn't need one. Then, at long last, the flaming sword goes out, and the cowardly fallen Lord drops and is no more.

I did it.

To celebrate, I take one last drink of Estus, bringing me to full health and condition. The Lord Soul of Gwyn is in my hand, and this, I can absorb, like I could the other special souls I've gotten during my quest. For a minute, I deliberate doing so…but no - like his son, I might be able to make something permanently useful from Gwyn's essence, and for now, it's a trophy. I tuck it away.

At last, I can look around this room. It's round, of course, since it's the bottom of a tower, but it looks almost natural, with the stalagmites here and there. The stone pillars (stalagmites, really, but high ones) I used are arranged almost evenly in a circle of three around the center, where a black patch is lined by little stalagmites…and in the center of this patch is a red sword stuck in a pile of ash. This isn't a bonfire, though it looks like it - it's the First Flame. I know, it would light _me_ on fire, not the ash, if I tried to touch it. All I have to do is walk away…

 _No, don't,_ whispers a voice. _Please, don't. Link the Fire. You don't have to do what Kaathe said, you can still link the Fire._

Surprised, I put a hand around my pendant. _Why would I link the Fire?_ I ask her.

 _You can be with me,_ she says. _Please…join me in here. We can be together._

 _Didn't you hear Kaathe?_ I demand. _This Fire is an abomination, created with the sole purpose of going against nature! I'm not going to continue propagating this; my destiny is to end it, so I will._

 _Is that it?_ she asks me. _Do you really care about what's right? Or do you just want to be the Dark Lord and rule over all of existence?_

 _Well…of course I want that,_ I reply, a bit bemused. _Who wouldn't prefer that over being tinder to keep a fire burning? Except maybe you…But that's not the only thing there is to this. This Fire is_ wrong _, my love! Even you can appreciate that, surely._

 _You're being selfish. As usual._

"Well, what about you?" I exclaim, speaking aloud now. "Do you think linking the Fire is the right thing to do just because it means self-sacrifice? That ending your own life will automatically make the world better?"

 _No…_

"Really?" I ask. "I know you would have done it anyway, because you're always so eager to give for others - even if Kaathe had told you the truth, you would have done it, wouldn't you?"

 _Well, yes…_

"Why?" I demand. "It's just because it means giving yourself, isn't it?"

She doesn't answer.

I shake my head. "I knew it," I sneer. "You didn't sacrifice yourself because it was the right thing to do, you think it's the right thing to do because it means sacrificing yourself! And you would have anyway, because that's automatically the good thing - thinking of yourself is amoral, no matter what the circumstances! Well, I'm smarter than that! I won't give myself up for its own sake - I am the Dark Lord, and the sacrifices end here!"

 _I'm just asking you not to sacrifice_ me _._

"Not to sacrifice y-?" Suddenly, I stop short, feeling as though I've been kicked in the stomach. An icy feeling spreads through my chest, my blood running cold, as the last piece of the puzzle clicks into place: She gave herself to link the Fire, so now she _is_ the Fire; if I extinguish the Flame, I extinguish _her_.

 _You want me to think of myself?_ she says. _Well, I will now. If there's one thing in the whole world that I could have, that I could ever have, it would be to spend the rest of eternity loving you - I would want nothing else, ever. If you do this, I won't be able to love you anymore._

"Y…You don't…know that," I manage to stammer. "Maybe extinguishing the Fire will set your soul free, so you can move on to…whatever comes next…"

 _And if it doesn't?_

"Then…" I have no answer, my determination falling away.

 _Besides, you don't know extinguishing the Fire is the right thing to do,_ she points out, sensing my uncertainty. _Either Frampt and Gwyndolin lied to you, or Kaathe lied to you - one of the two sides must be lying, right? Remember what Ingward said: That the Darkwraiths are the enemies of man, and of anything that has a soul. Kaathe leads the Darkwraiths, doesn't he? It makes sense that he'd lie to you to get you to do the wrong thing, doesn't it?_

"I don't…" I'm shaking, doubt filling me. But that can't be right… "When Frampt said I was to succeed Lord Gwyn, it felt wrong," I say, thinking out loud. "But when Kaathe told me I was to extinguish the Flame and become the Dark Lord, something inside me recognized the truth. I _felt_ it, he was the one who was being honest with me. Besides, you did as Frampt said, and look how things are now - just as they were. No, Kaathe isn't the liar." A bit of my confidents rebuilds itself, though it is still cracked. "No offense, my love, but I've always been much better at judging the truth from lies than you."

 _None taken,_ she admits. _But please…don't leave me._

Again, I hesitate.

 _I'm scared, Deimos, my love,_ she whispers. _It's not like there's any harm done. Leave it to someone else…_

"Would someone else find Kaathe, though?" I ask. "No, I don't think so - the only reason I did is because you told me what I was supposed to do with the Lordvessel, so I killed the Four Kings first. That's why…that's why you had to go before me - so I could learn the truth." As I say the words, I realize their validity. All of this was pre-destined - she, to sacrifice herself, so that I would have a guide to my own destiny.

Still, this is so unfair. Why should I have to end her existence? It's not fair! I _love_ her! I take off my helm so I can pull at my hair, putting my sword and shield away as well to free my hands.

"What do I do?" I moan. "It's not fair!"

 _I'm sorry,_ she whimpers. _But please…please come here. Don't start the Age of Dark, there's no telling what that will do to the world - just come in here, with me, and we can keep the Fire burning, and everything will be okay._

She fears the Dark, same as Gwyn did; still, is her fear really all that invalid? I'm so torn - my heart yearns for her, my souls screams for Darkness. Almost unwillingly, I walk over to the sword stuck in the ground, my hand itching to reach out to it. It won't even hurt, and then I can be with her again…

But…it's not right. Instead of taking the sword, I put my hand back on my pendant, the pendant that she gave to me, during our time in Astora as living humans. What I wouldn't give to have those days back…but they're over, and I need to accept that. Even if I join her in the Fire now, it won't be the same. And really, why should I give my life for this? Even for her…it's not worth it.

My mind is made up. "I'm sorry, my love," I say softly. "I hope you get to see the afterlife, and spend the rest of eternity in paradise…"

 _There is no paradise without you!_ she sobs, and I know she means that quite literally.

My eyes start to sting. "I'm sorry," I repeat.

Then, slowly, I put my hands to the twine that hold my pendant around my neck, and lift it over my head. For a minute, I just hold it out in front of me, over the unlit Fire, hesitant; love and emotions and memories rage through me as I stare at the carved jade no longer resting against my chest. I really don't want to do this. But, I have no choice.

"Goodbye," I whisper, a tear sliding down my cheek.

I drop the pendant into the ash, then turn and walk away.

Every step out of the Kiln echoes through my body, the ash crunching beneath my feet. Each one takes me away from her, and towards my destiny…she was never to be part of my ultimate destiny, though the knowledge twists my heart. I don't want to leave her…it feels as though I ripped out my own heart and left it by that sword, to fade into nothingness in the ancient ash, and every step further from it hurts more, and more…

At last, I make it back up the stairs and to the altar of the Lordvessel. Here, I find, not just Kaathe, but many primordial serpents, waiting for me.

"My Lord, bless thy safe return," says Kaathe.

"And Kaathe, and Frampt, serve Your Highness," says another.

"We are here to serve Your Highness," says a third.

They all bow down before me. I walk along the path, between them, their king.

"Let true Dark be cast upon the world," says Kaathe. "Our Lord hath return'st."

As I cross the threshold, with no living soul in its vicinity, the First Flame dies. For a moment, it's disconcerting, as though something vital just vanished. Then the Darksign burns on my skin, and the burning spreads throughout my being. It sinks into me and fills me, bringing the Dark Soul to life, the powers of a god finally at my fingertips. Yes…I am the new Lord of the world. I am the Dark Lord Deimos. It even sounds right, almost even more so than "the Great Lord Gwyn".

There are things to do. The Lordvessel shall be destroyed, its purpose done. For aiding me despite the dissent of his kind, as Seath did for Lord Gwyn, Kaathe shall be granted dukedom - whether he chooses to move into the Duke's Archives, or live in the Abyss, or whatsoever he wishes, he shall be granted. Frampt will be punished for trying to kill me…how, I know not - perhaps I'll leave that up to Kaathe. Anor Londo will be my kingdom, the castle my palace, the spot where the illusion of Gwynevere once rested my throne room.

Still, the pain of losing my love tempers my triumph. She would want me to rule benevolently…while I can't promise that, there is something I _can_ do. The power of the Darksign is within me - I can feel it, feel the Curse of the Undead in my veins. I can control it. Yes…if nothing else, I can fix one thing in her honor, with the help of the primordial serpents:

All Undead - including those in the outside world and those in the Northern Undead Asylum - shall be brought here, to live in Lordran, be it in the city of Anor Londo or the outside settlements, whatever each individual chooses. If an Undead wishes to be human - like Anastacia - they may come before me, and I shall break the Darksign that marks them; likewise, if any human wishes to be Undead, they may come to Anor Londo and ask it of me, and I shall brand them - never again will a person be branded with the Darksign at random. Everywhere in the outside world will be given a means for summoning a primordial serpent for this purpose - the serpents will transport all Undead and humans to where they belong. They will also inform the outside world of the new reign, so that all will know the Age of Dark has come, and that I am their king now. Any Undead who turn Hollow do so because they have nothing left to live for; such creatures will, of course, be immediately put out of their misery, permanently, by my hand. With this new Rule of the Undead done in her honor, whatever else I may do during my reign, I will do without remorse.

I will never forget Aiedale the Wanderer. Not as decades become centuries, and centuries become millennia - always will I remember her, and how much I loved her. Unbeknownst to me just now, in the distant future, this pain will drive me mad: millions of years from now, I'll throw myself into the flames, desperately hoping to reunite with her; things will return to the way they were before, with no one to control the Curse of the Undead - I will become known as Icarus Earth, and the next Chosen Undead will be tasked with vanquishing what I leave behind. But in this moment, as I walk among my new servants, I don't know this. All I know is the thing I will eventually deny: Aiedale is gone, her very existence snuffed out; all my ties to life as a mortal are gone, leaving me with one purpose.

I am the Lord of Men, the Dark Lord Deimos, and I will rule forevermore.

~THE END~


End file.
